Assemblies of people subject to compulsory military service are planned in the Gomel region in southern Belarus between 28 June and 16 July, the Ukrainian General Staff has announced.
The staff stated that provocations related to this are not excluded.
“In the period from June 28 to July 16 of this year, in Zhlobin district of Gomel region, military meetings with conscripts are planned. Demonstrative and provocative actions by units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus in the areas bordering Ukraine and conducting reconnaissance in order to clarify the positions and nature of the activities of our troops are not ruled out,” the staff stated in an evening communiqué. The Gomel region of Belarus borders Ukraine.
In a message published on Facebook, the staff informed about the ongoing Russian offensive in the Donbas.
“In the Lysychansk direction, the enemy fired mortars and artillery shells at the Lysychansk and Vovchoyarivka districts. The enemy does not stop trying to take control of the Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway,” we read in the statement.
The staff also reports shelling in the areas of many villages in the direction of Bakhmut, including Berestove, Klinove, Veroshyna, Travneve, Biolohorivka and Bakhmut itself. Areas of localities in the directions of Avdiivka, Kurakhovka and Novopavliv (among others: Kamyanka, Marinka, Vuhledar) were also subject to shelling.
The staff’s communiqué also lists numerous areas under fire further southwest, on the border of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The Belarusian defence ministry announced on 22 June that it had begun exercises with the participation of military commissariats (supplementary commands) in the Gomel region. They are to last until 1 July. The purpose of the exercises, it was reported, is to “control the readiness of the supplementary commands to perform their tasks”. Among other things, the exercises will include replenishment through the appointment of reservists. One of the elements will also be informing conscripts about mobilisation and organising their assemblies.