15 September, 2017
In the run-up to the manoeuvres, which kicked off on Thursday, some western officials and media speculated on the numbers of troops and the goal of Zapad 2017, disregarding the official data provided by Russian Federation and Belarus.
Russia's Defence Ministry said the current drills involved some 7,200 troops from Belarus and 5,500 from Russian Federation, up to 70 aircraft and helicopters, up to 680 units of military hardware, including 250 tanks, up to 200 artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers and mortars, and up to 10 warships. Western worries about the planned maneuvers have ranged from allegations that Russian Federation could use them to permanently deploy its forces to Belarus to fears of a surprise attack on the Baltics.
The war games are scheduled to kick-off Thursday evening.
Russia-West relations have hit their lowest point since the Cold War following Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and continuing fighting between Russian-backed separatists and troops loyal to Kyiv in eastern Ukraine.
Concerns in the Western alliance were raised by the apparent difference between official Russian figures about the size of the exercise - 12,700 troops and 680 pieces of military equipment, including 138 tanks - and Western estimates, based on troop and equipment movements, that the number could range from 70,000 to as many as 100,000 participants.
Earlier this week Jens Stoltenberg, NATO general secretary, said Russian Federation has every right to hold drills, but accused it of using "loopholes" to avoid scrutiny.
"It is a normal practice for any country to hold such exercises".
Russia's Defence Ministry reiterated on Thursday that the exercises were of a purely defensive nature and were not a threat to any third country or group of countries.
"The degree of mobilization is really impressive", Soloch said on private Radio Zet.
There is also unease in Kyiv, and Ukraine is now conducting its own military exercises, called "Unflinching Tenacity", scheduled to end Friday.
"We are anxious about this drill.it is an open preparation for war with the West", Grybauskaite told reporters. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said Zapad 2017 appears to be a "preparation for an offensive war on a continental scale".
"This is a threat to us, because they are dragging Belarus into this hybrid war, they are on our land practicing fighting a war with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and we don't need that, " said Nikolai Statkevich, a leader of protests against the exercises in Minsk last weekend.
"We are not threatening anyone", Oleg Voinov, an adviser to the Belarusian Defense Minister, told journalists Thursday.
"Leaving weapons in Belarus means the Russian army could prepare bases for a sudden broad attack. right at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation border", Lithuanian officer Darius Antanaitis said.
"It is a regular visit to a large-scale exercise".
The most recent Zapad exercises, which occur every few years, took place in 2013, just before Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Some people think fears of Russian aggression are being blown out of proportion. "Russians will not seek confrontation, because they know that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will be watching this event closely and is certainly ready to react", said Kestutis Girnius, a Vilnius University political analyst.
