Belarus paratroopers and British Royal Marines to hold joint exercise.

The British army participates in the ‘Winter Partisan’ (Zimniy Partizan) exercise in Belarus, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence announced on February 29. The British MoD has detailed neither equipment nor military vehicles to be involved in the ‘Winter Partisan’ exercise.

Devon ‘42 Commando’ of the Royal Marines, 3 Commando Brigade (Picture source: British MoD)

"Exercise Winter Partisan, which lasts until 14 March, will see the Green Berets from Devon [The ‘42 Commando’ unit of the Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade] train in integrated teams with members of the Belarusian armed forces, sharing experience and expertise (…) Thirty members of the 42 Commando will conduct cold-weather training on the two-week exercise," said the UK MoD in a statement released on February 29. According to the British military, the servicemen "will train in winter survival skills such as camouflage and winter movement skills including abseiling and skiing, before putting them to the test in an exercise setting". The abovementioned team is the largest group of British servicemen to be sent to Belarus for an exercise under a bilateral Belarusian-British program of training and education.

The Belarusian MoD did not mention the name of the exercise, saying that it would be "a bilateral exercise with the participation of a peacekeeping company of the 103rd Vitebsk Separate Airborne Brigade and a [British] Royal Marines unit".