"The Belarusian grouping of forces together with the mobilized ones, will have a maximum of 80,000 soldiers" - military expert

He shared his opinion with Espreso TV. 

“If the Belarusians currently have about 20,000 of their military personnel in the ground forces, and we add the mobilized ones, the total is 60,000. So, a maximum of 80,000 people is the Belarusian grouping of forces together with the mobilized ones,” Pavlo Lakiychuk said. 

The head of security programs of the Center for Global Studies Strategy XXI noted that it will take a month and a half to prepare the Belarusian military, unless Belarus follows the path of Russia, which immediately throws its soldiers to the front.

“We see how the Russians carry out mobilization in the Stalinist regime: a person comes to the Military Commissariat and is immediately sent to the front. Whoever survives will be a soldier, whoever does not survive will be cannon fodder. Maybe the Belarusians will follow this path. And if they decide to follow a more balanced path, then they will spend a month or a half on forming and staffing new units,” he added.

• On October 20, the Ukrainian Armed Forces' General Staff reported that the probability of an attempted offensive from the territory of Belarus is increasing due to the aggressive statements and actions of the Belarusian and Russian leadership.

• John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council of the White House, said that the Belarusian troops on the border with Ukraine may try to divert the attention of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to themselves.

• On October 21, the Institute for the Study of War called the risk of an attack from Belarus low.

• Ukraine's Armed Forces published a video appeal to the Belarusian people and army with a call not to join Russia's "dirty war" in Ukraine.