MINSK, August 29 (AVN) - Control bodies, units and formations of the Belarussian army, border guard troops and Interior Ministry troops, as well as the republic's Emergencies Ministry units involved in the Neman 2001 tactical exercise started marching to the exercise areas, a spokesman for the exercise headquarters said on Wednesday.
The combat operations stage will start on Thursday, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko will arrive there on Thursday morning. He is supposed to observe establishment of a pontoon crossing over the Neman River, joint operations of border guards and rifflemen against a rebel group.
Lukashenko will visit on Friday the Obul-Les proving range near the Baranovichi village where a tactical exercise of the 50th separate mechnised brigade with live firing and landing on mobile airborne units is to take place. Interior Ministry units will practise guard and defence of an important economic installation, blocking and destruction of the enemy's reconnaissance and sabotage groups, while Emergencies Ministry formations will demonstrate elimination of consequences of the enemy's air strikes on industrial installations in a town's residential area.
The man stage of the training will end on Saturday and the troops will return to their stationing areas on September 2 to 3.