MINSK. Sept 4 (Interfax) - The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states have conducted a joint exercise to practice opposing biological threats in Brest, a city in the western part of Belarus, as part of the CSTO's Combat Brotherhood 2023 drills, Belarus's STV state-run television channel said on Monday.
"The Combat Brotherhood exercise includes several components. One of them is codenamed Barrier. Radiation, chemical, and biological protection forces were engaged near Brest," it said.
"A newly established special unit, which also includes CSTO medical support services, practiced providing assistance to people who found themselves in a biological hazard hotbed. According to the scenario, it affected combat positions. Those who contacted the source of potential contamination were to be evacuated. Soil samples from the scene were to be analyzed at a field laboratory. Any possible dangerous pathogen could be identified in it. Based on the results, possible scenarios were practiced," it said.
"The need for conducting such an exercise, particularly to practice the elimination of sources of biological threats, arose primarily from the fact that biological security is of primary importance these days. And it requires joint efforts to accomplish common goals in the CSTO's interests. And this combined unit has been set up precisely to accomplish these goals," Vyacheslav Starkov, commander of the Brest exercise, said.
"Joint groups including representatives of all CSTO member states carried out the entire process from reconnaissance to the organization of quarantine," it said.
Apart from Belarusian troops, units from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were also engaged in the exercise, it said.
The CSTO's Combat Brotherhood 2023 strategic exercise is being held in Belarus from September 1 to 6, 2023, and involves 2,500 troops and over 500 pieces of hardware.