Russia builds up new military infrastructure at Belarusian training grounds

The Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty cooperated with the "Schemes" project, military analyst Mykhailo Zhyrokhov and the Planet Labs satellite service to conduct an investigation.

Journalists found out that Russian troops, and also new military infrastructure and equipment clusters began to appear at the main Belarusian training grounds in mid-October. The authors emphasize that some objects at these grounds are similar to those that were being put up in Belarus for Russian use in the full-scale invasion on February 24.

The main objects of the study were the 230th combined military training ground Obuz-Lisnovsky near Baranovichi, the training grounds Repishche near Osipovichi and Lasvida near Vitebsk, and the Machulyshchi air base near Minsk.

The article notes that military equipment began arriving at the Obuz-Lisnovsky training ground after October 16. Satellite images show two tent camps with more than 200 pieces of military equipment. Also, premises that resemble a field hospital and a training center can be seen in the image of the training ground.

"Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a similar-looking camp was put up at the Obuz-Lisnovsky training ground," the authors claim.

At the Repishche training ground there is a camp with at least 35 military tents, nearby is a parking lot for equipment with trucks and machines similar to howitzers. Journalists note that  the Vereytsi railway station is located nearby. Russian troops use it to unload their equipment.

"According to previous satellite images, it can be seen that after October 17 the camp begins to rapidly grow, more equipment arrives. The previous image does not show those signs yet," the text says.

The Lasvida camp, according to the authors, arose after October 11. On that day, the first tents appeared there; military equipment arrived three days later.

Planet Labs experts spotted three MIG-31K aircraft at the Machulyshchi airbase near Minsk. British intelligence reported the presence of these aircraft, and also that there were containers for storing Kinzhal missiles.

Telegram channel Belarusian Hajun repeatedly wrote that during the combat duty of these aircraft  an air alert is activated in many Ukrainian regions.

Military analyst Mykhailo Zhyrokhov concludes that the creation of a joint regional grouping of Putin and Lukashenko "in fact has already begun and is proceeding at a fairly fast pace."

"Russia currently has a problem with training grounds (most of them were sold in the 1990s), so now they can use the training grounds of Belarus to train the mobilized troops. Retraining and formation of new units will take place in the winter. And in the spring of 2023, Russia can attack Ukraine from the territory of Belarus ", Mykhailo Zhyrokhov told Radio Liberty reporters.