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Emergency Minister Vadim Sinyavsky told state Belarus 1
television that employees will be ready to assist the ministries
"in the event of an armed conflict or some kind of riots in
which a significant number of personnel must be involved."
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said earlier this year
he wants "every man - and not only a man" to be able to at least
handle weapons to respond to an act of aggression.
While not sending his own troops to Ukraine, Lukashenko allowed
Moscow to use Belarusian territory to launch its full-scale
invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
Belarus and Russia have since held multiple joint military
training exercises, and in June Lukashenko allowed his country
to be used as a base for Moscow's nuclear weapons, a move
broadly condemned by the West.
Lukashenko has also frequently met with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, with the latest two-day trip of the Belarusian
president to Moscow ending on Monday, where the two leaders
talked about "strategic partnership."
Russia and Belarus are linked in a partnership called the "union
state" in which Moscow is by far the dominant player.
The perception that Lukashenko, a pariah in the West, depends on
Putin for his survival had fanned fears in Kyiv that Putin would
pressure him to join a fresh ground offensive and open a new
front in Russia's faltering invasion of Ukraine.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Chris Reese)
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