Zapad Military Exercise (2017)

Date: September 14–20, 2017

Place: Belarus and Russia

Summary

The Zapad military exercise was a series of joint large-scale military drills conducted by Russian and Belarusian forces along the countries’ western borders and in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in September 2017 that was, according to Russian officials, designed to demonstrate the country’s military ability to defend against foreign threats. Amid strained relations with Russia, Western nations watched the proceedings closely, with particularly the United States and other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expressing concern that the six-day exercise, reportedly based on a hypothetical conflict with the West, could serve as a cover for a real offensive military operation.

Key Events

• September 14, 2017—Russian military begins a series of joint, large-scale drills with Belarus.
• September 20, 2017—The 2017 Zapad military drills conclude.

Status

The 2017 Russian Zapad military exercise ended on September 20, and though spokespeople from the United States as well as some North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations, especially those bordering Russia and Belarus, expressed concern that the military exercise might hide a covert military agenda, no such agenda was revealed by the six-day exercise. According to a New York Times article on the Zapad drills published on October 1, many believed that the exercise was meant to display the nation’s renewed military prowess to the world as well as to intimidate smaller allied nations who might oppose Russia’s long-term goals. Regardless of the intentions of the exercise, it was reported that US and NATO military officials had analyzed the exercise and had taken note, for reference, of the technological and strategic capabilities displayed.

In-Depth Overview

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union carried out regular military exercises, but this practice fell off with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, the exercises were revived, often on a large scale, beginning in 1999 and expanding when Vladimir Putin became president of Russia in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The Russian military announced the decision to hold the newest series of military drills in cooperation with neighboring nation Belarus in 2016. The exercise, named Zapad, or “West,” would reportedly involve a number of different branches of the military.

In the lead-up to the exercise, which had been scheduled to begin in September 2017, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, commander of the US Army in Europe, held that NATO leaders feared that it could be a “Trojan horse” operation. On two previous occasions, in Georgia in 2008 and in the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the Russian government used military exercises as a prelude to staging a permanent military presence in foreign nations, essentially using a training exercise to launch a quiet invasion. The situation in Crimea, which ultimately resulted in Russia’s forced annexation of the territory, led especially to increased tensions between NATO nations and Russia. The Zapad exercise of 2017 was held along the Russian and Belarussian borders with Poland, an important strategic region for NATO in Eastern Europe. NATO leaders were thus concerned that Russia could use the exercises to permanently station military forces in Belarus.

According to the stipulations of the Vienna Document, which was created in 1990 by members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), any military exercise involving more than thirteen thousand troops requires the staging nation to issue invitations to observers from Western nations. While Russia insisted that the actual number would not exceed that total, critics were reluctant to believe Russia’s reports; some analysts predicted that as many as one hundred thousand might be involved. Belarus extended an invitation to foreign military officials to observe operations held in that country. In addition, NATO countries used satellites and aircraft to observe the Belarusian military activities as they progressed.

Preparations for the drills began in the summer. In the Zapad 2017 scenario, which began on September 14, Russian troops were told to prepare to combat the fictional enemy nation Veishnoriya—backed by Western nations—and its two fictional allies, Lubeniya and Vesbasriya. The scenario involved the military responding to an attack by a US-backed enemy and then conducting a coordinated counterattack. Some US analysts theorized that the fictional countries represented the Baltic States and Poland. Official Russian reports cited 12,700 combined Russian and Belarusian soldiers taking part in the exercise, which was emphasized as a means of strengthening the nation’s defensive capabilities. Along with soldiers, the exercise included the use of a range of military hardware such as helicopters, tanks, ballistic missiles, jets, and submarines. Putin and Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu were present for some of the activities, which formally ended on September 20.

While the Zapad 2017 exercise did not lead to some of the worst fears expressed by NATO leaders leading up to the drills, and it was confirmed that all Russian troops had left Belarus following the conclusion of the exercise, some Western analysts argued that Russia’s claims regarding the number of troops involved had been lower than in actuality. They estimated that the combined operations across the nation might have involved sixty to seventy thousand personnel.

Key Figures

Ben Hodges: Commander of the US Army in Europe.

Vladimir Putin: President of Russia.

Bibliography

Donnelly, T., & Schmitt, G. (2017, September 14). Could “Zapad” be a Trojan horse? CNN. Retrieved from ERLINK "http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/opinions/zapad-opinion-donnelly-and-schmitt/index.html" http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/opinions/zapad-opinion-donnelly-and-schmitt/index.html

Gordon, M. R., & Schmitt, E. (2017, July 31). Russia’s military drills near NATO border raise fears of aggression. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/world/europe/russia-military-exercise-zapad-west.html

Schmitt, E. (2017, October 1). Vast exercise demonstrated Russia’s growing military prowess. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/01/us/politics/zapad-russia-military-exercise.html

Standish, R. (2017, September 18). The ominous, massive military exercises in Eastern Europe. The Atlantic. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/zapad-russia-baltics-lithuania-estonia-finland-trumpnato-eu/540126/" https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/zapad-russia-baltics-lithuania-estonia-finland-trumpnato-eu/540126/

Walker, S. (2017, September 18). Vladimir Putin watches display of Russian firepower near EU border. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/18/russia-zapad-military-drill-enters-final-phase