Belarus Says it Has 1.5 Mln Potential Soldiers Outside Armed Forces

Previous military training between Russia and Belarus (archive - AFP)
Previous military training between Russia and Belarus (archive - AFP)
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Belarus Says it Has 1.5 Mln Potential Soldiers Outside Armed Forces

Previous military training between Russia and Belarus (archive - AFP)
Previous military training between Russia and Belarus (archive - AFP)

Belarus, a small Russian ally bordering Ukraine, has as many as 1.5 million potential military personnel outside its armed forces, a senior official was quoted as saying on Saturday.

President Alexander Lukashenko has supported his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in his year-long war with Ukraine, including by letting him invade from Belarusian territory and by allowing Russia to train newly mobilized troops in Belarus.

Lukashenko this month ordered the formation of a new volunteer territorial defense force of up to 150,000 people. He has said his army would fight only if Belarus was attacked, Reuters said.

"The structures of the organizations, not the Armed Forces, will amount to somewhere up to 1.5 million people in the event of a declaration of martial law and the switch of the economy to a war mode," said State Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Volfovich, according to the state BelTA news agency.

Belarus has a population of around 9.3 million. The country's professional army has about 48,000 troops and some 12,000 state border troops, according to the 2022 International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance.



Belgian Court Orders Regional Government to Stop Military Exports to Israel, Belga Reports

An Israeli flag is seen at the entrance to a school in Kibbutz Amir near Israel's border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, October 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
An Israeli flag is seen at the entrance to a school in Kibbutz Amir near Israel's border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, October 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
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Belgian Court Orders Regional Government to Stop Military Exports to Israel, Belga Reports

An Israeli flag is seen at the entrance to a school in Kibbutz Amir near Israel's border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, October 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
An Israeli flag is seen at the entrance to a school in Kibbutz Amir near Israel's border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, October 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

A court in Brussels on Thursday ordered the regional Flemish government to stop all transit of military equipment to Israel, Belgian news agency Belga reported.

The region is home to the Antwerp-Bruges port - one of the largest in Europe.