BELARUSIAN COMMANDER DESCRIBES EXERCISE IN ARMENIA
Belorusskaya Voyennaya Gazeta
Oct 5 2012
Minsk, Belarus
A Belarusian commando unit commander has described a recent drill
in Armenia involving his own country and nearby ones. Speaking in an
interview, Dzmitryy Korshunaw described the training, which took place
in mountainous terrain. The following is the text of the interview
with Belarusian commando unit commander Dzmitryy Korshunaw, conducted
by Alyaksandr Lohinaw, entitled Interaction plus mutual aid, posted
on the Belarusian site Belarusskaya Voyennaya Gazeta on 5 October;
subheadings have been inserted editorially:
As our newspaper has already reported, the Interaction-2012 joint
exercise of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s [CSTO]
Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CRRF) was concluded in Armenia
in late September. Its participants were CRRF national contingents
from six CSTO member states: Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Belarus was represented at the exercise by special operation forces
command officers, command of the 103th guard detached mobile brigade,
along with paratroopers from the 357th guard detached airmobile
battalion of the 103th guards detached mobile rapid reaction brigade
under command of Guards Maj Dzmitryy Korshunaw. After the return
of the blue berets from Vitsebsk to the point of their permanent
dislocation, our correspondent had a meeting and discussion with
the battalion commander who had successfully passed another combat
examination together with his subordinates.
[Alyaksandr Lohinaw] This is already the second time when sub-units of
the 357th guards detached airmobile battalion take part in multilateral
exercises outside Belarus. In your opinion, what useful things did
the command staff learn during the recent mission to Armenia?
On benefits of drill
[Dzmitryy Korshunaw] First of all, commanders have acquired useful
experience in relocating sub-units to long distances of this kind,
in organization of service and living conditions in autonomous mode,
separately from the major brigade’s forces. The second lesson of not
less importance is organization of interaction with armies from other
CSTO member states. The third one is practice in training combat
actions in different climate conditions and in the locality that
completely differs from ours.
As regards methods and ways of waging armed fighting and tactics,
there was nothing surprising at all for us. We resolved all tasks in
the course of the exercise within the framework of the combat training
programme for sub-units of special operations forces, and namely,
we trained counter-sabotage activities in interaction with special
units of other member states.
[Lohinaw] Our special operation forces traditionally learn fighting in
Belarusian forests and bogs. Taking into account immense physical loads
that paratroopers have to endure in the course of combat training,
were there any problems during personnel adaptation to Armenian
climate, local landscape and natural conditions?
[Korshunaw] Difficulties did not arise. Probably, it was unusual that
visibility afield in our area is 1.5-2 km, while there it is 15-20 km.
This to some extent simplifies the carrying out of fire tasks, but
at the same time, this dictates its requirements to camouflaging.
The second thing for which one must be ready is local fauna: different
poisonous insects, scorpions and spiders. Besides this, we had to
get accustomed to major temperature differences.
It rose to 36 degrees and mountainous desert localities and dropped
to nine degrees at night. But I would not say that all these are
difficulties: these are more likely to be unusual conditions.
As people usually say here, strong martial spirit and strength of
warriors from special operations forces enable them to fulfil any
tasks in any point of the planet and under any conditions.
[Lohinaw] Did the aforementioned unusual locality and climate
conditions result in so- called non-combat losses: insects’ stings,
diseases and injuries?
[Korshunaw] Instructing in prevention of accidents has been conducted,
and everything was observed, so the were no accidents of any kind. For
example, in order to safeguard a field camp against malicious insects
and arthropods, soil along the perimeter of tents was showered with
water. They avoid it like the plague. All military servicemen have
adopted an elementary rule: if poisonous insects are not touched,
they do not attack anyone.
As regards drinking behaviour and food quality, the Armenian side
has taken good care of all this, and therefore there were no cases
of diseases or poisoning.
[Lohinaw] While preparing yourselves for the future activities of this
kind and using Armenian experience, will you make any modifications
in paratroopers’ outfit and their uniform? Will new things necessary
in different climate appear in their rucksacks?
[Korshunaw] The squadron was equipped with all necessary items in full
scope before the exercise, and new outfit fully justified itself. The
major plus was in the fact that paratroopers had been given plastic
knee and elbow protectors and special leather gloves. When servicemen
made preparations for fighting and when they moved on stony soil,
they were protected against grazes and closed wounds.
Russian was common languages of drill
[Lohinaw] Representatives of six CSTO member states took part in
this multilateral exercise: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia and Tajikistan. Did to feel language barrier in the course of
combat activities?
[Korshunaw] The protocol envisaged in advance that the language of
the exercise would be Russian. The paperwork and combat documents
management were organized in Russian. Belarusians, Russians and
Kazakhs, representing to great extent Russian-speaking countries,
did not encounter any language problems, but it might have been a
little bit more difficult for others.
[Lohinaw] But as regards military terminology, did the participants
of the exercise easily find a common language? The point is that the
Soviet military school has not existed for more than 20 years now,
and each national army has its own peculiarities, specifics and
difference in terms.
[Korshunaw] This was also stipulated in the protocol. It was envisaged
that the combat manual of the airborne troops of the Soviet Army will
be taken as the basis for organization of combat activities. But it
is natural that each national sub-unit, and we in particular, apply
some of their own methods, tactical techniques and elaborations in
the course of the exercise.
[Lohinaw] If we appraise the combat preparedness level of sub-units
from contingents of different member states, which of them, in your
opinion, differ for the better?
[Korshunaw] The level of preparedness of all sub-units is approximately
the same. Let me tell you without false modesty that our No 3 airmobile
Guards unit commanded by Guards Lt Valeryy Bulyha presented itself
perfectly at all stages of the exercise. If we speak about the foreign
ones, it is probably possible to specially point out the sub-units of
the Armenian special mission unit and Russian special rapid reaction
unit manned on a professional basis.
[Lohinaw] How did the command headquarters of the exercise appraise
the work of our staff officers?
[Korshunaw] The commander of the CRRF group was a representative
of the Armenian side, Maj-Gen Kamo Kochunts. Against the general
background, he specially noted the preparedness of the Belarusian
headquarters. Officers from the 103th guards detached mobile rapid
reaction brigade and special operations force command representing
Belarus often assumed the initiative and helped their Armenian comrades
in the preparation of documents for organizing and carrying out the
exercise. The problem lay only in the fact that all paperwork in the
Armenian Armed Forces was in their native language, and certain time
was needed to transfer it into Russian.
[Lohinaw] Did you find time in your tough working schedule to
familiarize yourselves with far-away Armenia and its landmarks:
probably the majority of our country’s representatives visited it
for the first time?
[Korshunaw] It is necessary to give credit to the host side. Our
Armenian brothers took care of us with high-quality food for personnel,
just like for comfortable conditions of everyday life to the extent
possible in a field camp, and even a cultural programme.
Different team sports tournaments were constantly held during the
time free of combat training, and military servicemen from different
countries communicated informally. A sightseeing tour was also
organized to historic landmarks, of which there are plenty in Armenia.
Our paratroopers visited the pagan temple Garni, which is a landmark of
the Hellenic culture dated the first century AD, an ancient Christian
temple; they also visited Armenian capital Yerevan and managed to
enjoy picturesque mountain landscapes.
[Lohinaw] Who of your subordinates especially distinguished himself
during the Interaction-2012 exercise?
[Korshunaw] Practically all the officer staff taking part in the
exercise from the Belarusian side received state awards, letters
of acknowledgement, diplomas and valuable presents. As regards me
personally, I would like to distinguish the work of the head of the
staff of the 357th guards detached airmobile battalion, Guards Maj
Yawhen Yartsaw who fulfilled solid tasks in work with combat documents
and successfully supervised an international Belarusian-Kazakh-Armenian
group directly in one of the segments. It had the task to block a
populated locality and to mop it up.
The commander of the No 3 airmobile Guards unit, Lt Valeryy Bulyha,
also deserves all kind of praise. Thanks to the right organization
of training activities, personnel service and everyday life and tough
observance of security measures, not a single one of his subordinates
left the ranks. The deputy commander of this squad in charge of
ideological work, Lt Raman Prakapenka, dealt successfully with
informational support and organization of activities in ideological
work at the scale of not only his squad, but the whole Belarusian
group, and his professionalism also deserves credit.
[Translated from Russian]