Men from the western regions of Belarus are receiving summonses en masse. Officially, the summonses are for unscheduled military training. This has caused a lot of discussion on social networks. Belarusians are actively discussing the process and are outraged that the training is being conducted in a hurry and that even parents with many children are being drafted. The Suspilne investigative editorial office noticed the fact that the previous military training did not cause such a discussion. We turned to experts for comment to find out whether this training poses a threat to Ukraine, as well as to Lithuania and Poland, near whose borders it takes place.
Unexpected test of military readiness
On January 16, 2026, Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus who is not recognized by a number of countries, announced an unscheduled inspection of the country’s armed forces. According to reports from the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, the inspection of military units is still ongoing.
A month later, on February 17, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus reported that “as part of the comprehensive check of the armed forces”, the draft of conscripts is underway. Reservists are being sent to military units of the Western Operational Command.
Deputy military commissar of the city of Grodno and Grodno district Alexander Rovgach said the following, “Officers, warrant officers, sergeants, and reserve privates arrive at the conscription points, where they are divided into teams. The formed teams are sent to the reception points of military units according to the established schedule. Conscripts understand what is happening and are motivated to fulfill the assigned tasks.”
Panic on social media
Despite the Belarusian military commissar’s assurances of “understanding and motivation”, the Suspilne investigative editorial office, as well as Belarusian opposition media outlets, have noticed that there is a lot of discussion on social media about conscription. Wives are actively sharing how quickly their husbands are being drafted, without even being allowed to take things, and that even fathers with many children are being conscripted.
We checked the accounts of the commenters and found that they belong to real people. Now we will tell you several stories shared by Belarusians.
Grodno resident Darya Meleshko, a mother of three children who makes candles and plaster products, expressed concern that her husband had received a summons:
“Women from Grodno, have your husbands been conscripted for training? What is the situation? Can people with three children be conscripted?” She was told in the comments that even men with four children and those who had not served earlier are being conscripted.
Yana Petrash, a mother of three children from Grodno, is also worried about her husband’s summons:
“Mothers of many children, have your husbands been conscripted? My husband received a summons yesterday, on Thursday, February 19, at 8:00 am, to be with things and documents at Yanka Kupala Street, at the construction lyceum. And we have three children; I am still on maternity leave: the youngest daughter is only 1 year old, and the eldest is 6 years old.”
Nikolai Zinchuk from Grodno decided to get acquainted in advance with those who also received summonses, “Belarus. Grodno. Who is also going to military training on February 19, 2026? Let’s get together.”
Other men responded, saying that they had spent a day or two at the collection points and received new summonses.
Tattoo artist Angelina Movlyan from Grodno wrote that her husband had received a summons at eight in the morning, and at 6 p.m., he was taken away. Now he is at the training ground. “It seems like for a month,” the woman added.
The comments under her post mention two settlements, Slonim in Grodno region and Baranki in Brest region, where reservists are being gathered.
Alexander Bindey from Grodno, who was a border guard or at least served in the border troops and in December 2022 receiveda medal from Lukashenko, published a photo of his summons with the caption: “Almost every acquaintance received a summons... We are going to serve again after 5.5 years.”
Olga Kravchuk from Grodno wrote that after her husband had been conscripted, contact with him was lost, “As soon as he got on the bus, contact was lost. The phone is turned off. Is it the same with others?”
Vika Sedach from Grodno has a first-grader son, and she is worried about the Women’s Day, March 8, “They have taken all the men from Grodno and the region. We will buy ourselves flowers on March 8.”
Driving instructor Kirill Alisievych from Grodno, in response to the comment that this was a regular annual training, replied, “Regular is when everything is calm and according to the schedule, but when more than 4-5 thousand are conscripted in one day, then this is no longer regular.”
Veronika Dobrenko from Grodno, who is on maternity leave, answering a question about the reasons for the panic, writes, “Because so many are being conscripted. From families with many children, female nurses. Suddenly and in large numbers. They were conscripted before, but nothing like this happened. Something terrible may happen; that is why there is panic.”
A man from the town of Slonim, Denis Antonovych, who served in 2020, answers her, “Why do you think this did not happen before? In 2023, a brigade was alerted in Slonim like in wartime: all the equipment was there, the personnel left the brigade territory, and 3,500 military personnel were called up from the reserve, including female nurses. And they were taken then not only from Grodno and the region, but from the entire republic. Therefore, there is no reason for panic. Ordinary training involving conscripts from the reserve.”
Irina Masharska from Polotsk, who actively opposes Putin and Lukashenko in comments on social networks, wrote in Belarusian:
“Is anyone surprised? Haven’t you heard that the Republic of Belarus is a union state? And that the war is lasting longer than the “Great Patriotic” one? And that Belarus produces weapons? And that Ukraine is being bombed from Belarus (officially not, but my Ukrainian acquaintance has relatives not far from the border with the Republic of Belarus, and they are being bombed from the territory of Belarus)? The war is close, and Belarusians are connected to the aggressor as accomplices.”
Kristina Yarmolovich (Rakuzova) from Grodno, whose husband probably works at the military registration office, comments on Threads:
“The husband receives everyone with a summons. They called at night and told him to come. Yesterday he left home at 6:00 am and returned at night, at 2:00 am. He received the priest who baptized our daughter. They do not explain anything to them either. I know that 1,500 people have been conscripted from Grodno.”
Katerina Palyakova, a veterinarian from Grodno, recently got married and produced a baby. Here is what she writes about the conscription:
“My husband has been conscripted; the summons was brought almost at night on the 16th. We have a baby, he went to work, and there was another summons there. He was supposed to show up at 3:00 pm on the 17th. At 7:00 pm, they already took him away, and for all the diagnoses – the child’s, the husband’s, and mine – they said, “It does not matter.” And they took him away. I do not know where he is now and what is happening to him. There is no communication; they took away phones. The only thing he managed to say was, “Like wartime”. They took him away until March 23-26.”
Anatoly Markevich from a village near Minsk said on TikTok that he was summoned to the military registration office in Logoisk on February 21, 2026. In the comments to the video, he wrote that he was conscripted for 35 days and that he was a private.
Belarusian journalists asked military commissars about the urgency
The journalists from the Belarusian opposition publication “Zerkalo” called the country’s military registration offices and asked why the conscription was taking place in such a hurry.
The military registration offices confirmed that summonses are being issued for the same day, not as usual, when a person could appear during the week.
“What is the reason for such urgency?”the journalists asked the military registration office of Gomel district. The answer was, “You should ask the minister of defense, the military commissar.”
However, they assumed that the haste was caused by the fact that this was not a planned training, but a check on mobilization readiness.
The military offices also informed journalists that men who were sent to the training will get financial compensation, and added that small children are not a reason not to be drafted. A deferment can be granted to those who care for relatives with disabilities, work in agriculture, have a training session, or have three or more children under the age of 18.
The publication’s journalists noted that conscripts can be called up for special training for a period of up to two months.In addition, the Belarusian law limits the total duration of military or special training for the entire time a conscript is in the reserve – it cannot last for more than 12 months.
Response to the “aggressive rhetoric of Western countries”
Today, February 19, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense published on its Telegram page a statement by Major General Valery Revenko, assistant to the defense minister and the head of the department of international military cooperation of the Belarusian defense ministry. He stated that their “operational and combat training measures are primarily related to the actions and aggressive rhetoric of Western countries, which have openly stated that they are preparing for war.”
“Accordingly, we are also carrying out measures to prepare the armed forces to repel aggression... Everything is open, accessible and clear, we are preparing to repel aggression without any aggressive and offensive actions,” Revenko said.
Revenko also added that Belarus is not increasing the number of armed forces, but is arming itself with high-tech weapons that will allow “ensuring strategic deterrence measures”.
A Belarusian opposition activist: the training does not pose a threat to Ukraine and the EU, unlike the training ground in Gomel region
The Suspilne investigative editorial office asked a source (who asked not to be named) from the team of Belarusian opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya to comment on the situation with the reservists conscription in Belarus.
“Such training courses have actually been conducted constantly, just on a slightly smaller scale,” the speaker noted. “There is nothing unusual in the format of the training. When I served, and when my friends served after me, and when my son served, they were often summoned and given tasks in this way.”
According to the expert, Ukraine has no reason to worry about the training. “It is just that Lukashenko is very worried after the events in Venezuela and wants to somehow assess what will happen to him if they try to do the same thing to him as they did to Maduro. Lukashenko will be reassured that his army loves him, is loyal to him, that everything is fine, and everyone will be returned to their places. In any case, firstly, Lukashenko does not have the combat potential to try to invade Ukraine. Secondly, the Belarusian military simply will not do that. There are few pro-Russians: I think less than 10%. And the rest will not do that. If it was not possible to send them on the third day after the start of the full-scale invasion at the end of February 2022, then now, when the Belarusians see perfectly well the level of losses in the Russian army and that the Russian army cannot do anything, well, who will do that? It is absolutely impossible. Thirdly, Ukraine is not an enemy for Belarus, has never been, and will never be.
Our source does not see any threats to Poland or Lithuania, near whose borders the training is taking place, “Is the Belarusian army capable of attacking anyone? Let us be honest: it is impossible. Firstly, it is a question whether they could do that together with Russians, but it is not a fact that they will go together with Russians. Secondly, Russia does not have free resources right now. Russia wants to occupy Donbas and it cannot.”
However, according to our speaker, Ukraine should be alerted to something else: the formation of an airborne brigade and the construction of a new training ground and military base in Gomel region, 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
In particular, the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe wrote about this construction, publishing a photo of the facility.
“In January 2022, I told everyone who asked me that aggression would definitely begin, because there could be no training outside the training ground. I served in the army all my life, I have been to different countries and I have never seen training conducted outside the training ground. And when an attack group was gathered in the immediate vicinity of the border with Ukraine, where there are no training grounds nearby, it was absolutely clear to me that this was not training, this was something else. And now, when the Belarusians are building a training ground in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine, this will allow them to mislead, concentrate some troops under the guise of training and do something. The Russians can use this.”
“Lithuania closely monitors such actions”
The Suspilne investigative editorial office also asked for comment retired Lithuanian NATO colonel Vaidotas Malinionis. According to him, the distribution of training summonses in the western region of Belarus should be viewed primarily as part of standard mobilization readiness checks.
“These activities are usually aimed at assessing how quickly reservists can be gathered, how effectively command elements operate in stressful situations, and how well logistics, communications, and equipment reserves function in real-world conditions. Such activities do not automatically signal readiness for offensive operations. They are routine practice in armies that rely heavily on reserve forces,” commented Vaidotas Malinionis.
“However, given the current security situation, the events in Belarus cannot be assessed in isolation,” added Malinionis. “Belarus remains closely linked to Russian military planning, and large-scale trainings or mobilization assessments can serve several purposes. In addition to simple training, they can signal intent, convey messages of deterrence, or exert psychological pressure on NATO neighbors. The key issue is not simply the fact that the training is taking place, but what is indicated by its scale, composition, and timeframe. Warning signals would include the concentration of maneuver units near borders, prolonged buildup of supply lines, deployment of sophisticated air defense or electronic warfare assets, or periods of training that exceed normal cycles.”
Vaidotas Malinionis added that Lithuania closely monitors such actions, but does not exaggerate their significance:
“Lithuania, together with NATO allies, maintains constant control over the situation on the eastern flank. The presence of allied troops, enhanced forward defense and integrated intelligence sharing significantly reduce the likelihood of strategic surprise. As a result, military activities in Belarus are assessed within the broader regional picture, including events in Ukraine and the overall composition of Russian forces. At present, these challenges are more consistent with routine readiness checks than with preparations for short-term offensive operations. However, given the unstable regional background and the use of hybrid tactics in recent years, vigilance remains important. The situation does not justify panic, but it requires constant attention and coordinated readiness with NATO partners.”
