British Ministry of Defense: Russia may have canceled its annual joint strategic exercise with Belarus

The British Ministry of Defense believes that Russia may have canceled its major annual strategic exercise Zapad (“West”), conducted jointly with Belarus.

The ministry observes that the exercise, “intended to be the culmination of the military’s training year,” had been scheduled for September 2023. Since 2021, Russia’s annual strategic exercises prioritized perceived threats from the West and took part in the western part of the country.

The joint exercise Zapad-2021 had been the largest military training event conducted by Russia since the collapse of the USSR: apart from 200,000 troops, it involved 760 units of military equipment and 15 ships. In the fall of 2021, the movement of troops and armored equipment towards Russia’s borders alerted military experts to the possibility that Russia was getting ready to invade Ukraine.

“Russia has likely canceled Zapad-2023 because too few troops and equipment are available,” the British Ministry of Defense tweeted in today’s Defense Intelligence update. It’s also possible, the update notes, that the “slickly presented” exercise might have drawn domestic criticism in light of the combat situation in Ukraine.