{"id":1396104,"date":"2026-05-22T10:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/russia-has-increased-its-influence-on-belarus-following-nuclear-exercises-isw\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T10:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:34:37","slug":"russia-has-increased-its-influence-on-belarus-following-nuclear-exercises-isw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/russia-has-increased-its-influence-on-belarus-following-nuclear-exercises-isw\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia has increased its influence on Belarus following nuclear exercises \u2013 ISW"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"relative basis-auto flex-col -mb-(--composer-overlap-px) pb-(--composer-overlap-px) [--composer-overlap-px:28px] grow flex\">\n<p><strong>Russia and Belarus completed joint nuclear exercises on May 21, during which they practiced the delivery of munitions, missile launches, and the overturning of missile systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex flex-col text-sm\">\n<p>This demonstrates Russia&#8217;s influence on Belarus and the possibility of involving the country in future Russian military operations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"qMYqUG_convSearchResultHighlightRoot\">\n<div class=\"\" data-turn-id-container=\"request-6a0eaf43-62b8-83eb-b1c8-a45abedb6a4d-4\" data-is-intersecting=\"true\">\n<section class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full focus:outline-none has-data-writing-block:pointer-events-none [&amp;:has([data-writing-block])&gt;*]:pointer-events-auto R6Vx5W_threadScrollVars scroll-mb-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom,0px)+var(--thread-response-height))] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]\" dir=\"auto\" data-turn-id=\"request-6a0eaf43-62b8-83eb-b1c8-a45abedb6a4d-4\" data-turn-id-container=\"request-6a0eaf43-62b8-83eb-b1c8-a45abedb6a4d-4\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-86\" data-scroll-anchor=\"false\" data-turn=\"assistant\">\n<div class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto [--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-xs,calc(var(--spacing)*4))] @w-sm\/main:[--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-sm,calc(var(--spacing)*6))] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-lg,calc(var(--spacing)*16))] px-(--thread-content-margin)\">\n<div class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group\/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\">\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col gap-4 grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal outline-none keyboard-focused:focus-ring [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-1\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"1f455c38-4f5c-418b-a291-c7b68aea659e\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5-5\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert wrap-break-word w-full light markdown-new-styling\">\n<p data-start=\"275\" data-end=\"331\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">The Institute for the Study of War<\/span><\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/understandingwar.org\/research\/russia-ukraine\/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-21-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> this.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"333\" data-end=\"512\">According to experts, on May 21, Russian President <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Vladimir Putin<\/span><\/span> and Belarusian President <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Alexander Lukashenko<\/span><\/span> took part in the second stage of the exercises.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"333\" data-end=\"512\">\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/russia-wants-to-drag-belarus-into-war-against-ukraine-which-areas-are-at-risk\/\">Russia wants to drag Belarus into war against Ukraine: which areas are at risk?<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"514\" data-end=\"768\">According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian troops delivered nuclear weapons to Belarus, while Belarusian military personnel practiced receiving, equipping, and transporting specialized munitions and launchers for the Iskander-M ballistic missile system.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"770\" data-end=\"1146\">It was also reported that during the exercises, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk state test cosmodrome, a Zircon hypersonic missile from the Barents Sea, a Sinevaya ICBM from a nuclear submarine, cruise missiles from a Tu-95MS aircraft, a Tu-1 aircraft, and an Iskander-M missile from the Kapustin Yar test site.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1148\" data-end=\"1283\">ISW experts note that these exercises indicate Russia&#8217;s growing influence on Belarus and its involvement in Moscow&#8217;s military operations.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1285\" data-end=\"1491\">Until 2022, Belarus was considered a non-nuclear state, but following constitutional amendments, the country renounced this status, allowing Moscow to expand its military presence on Belarusian territory.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1493\" data-end=\"1685\">According to analysts, Russia has increasing opportunities to use Belarus as a springboard for deploying its forces to increase pressure on <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">NATO<\/span><\/span> and Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1687\" data-end=\"1820\">In particular, the Russian President stated that he plans to hold another joint exercise, &#8220;Union Shield,&#8221; in 2027 for joint military training.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1822\" data-end=\"1974\">Earlier, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/rosiia-oholosyla-iaderni-navchannia-v-umovakh-zahrozy-ahresii\/\">Pryamoy&#8221; reported that Russia had begun<\/a> large-scale exercises to prepare for and potentially use nuclear forces. The maneuvers lasted from May 19 to 21.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1976\" data-end=\"2130\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/u-bilorusi-rozpochalysia-iaderni-navchannia-spilno-z-rf-detali\/\">Belarus also conducted military exercises with Russia<\/a> , during which they practiced the delivery of nuclear weapons and preparations for their use.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1976\" data-end=\"2130\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Also follow <strong>&#8220;Pryamy&#8221;<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia and Belarus completed joint nuclear exercises on May 21, during which they practiced the delivery of munitions, missile launches, and the overturning of missile systems. This demonstrates Russia&#8217;s influence on Belarus and the possibility of involving the country in future Russian military operations. The Institute for the Study of War reports this. According to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1396098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76874,76875],"class_list":["post-1396104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-war","category-other-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1396106,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396104\/revisions\/1396106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1396098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}