This is the moment Russian and Belarusian forces take part in land and air war games to hone their combat readiness skills.

The military training exercises took place at the Brestsky training ground in Belarus and the footage was shared on social media by the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 4th February.

The Russian MoD said: “Artillery units of the coalition group of troops of Russia and Belarus, as part of an inspection of the reaction forces of the Union State (of Russia and Belarus) at the Brestsky training ground, carried out the destruction of equipment and manpower of a mock enemy.

“In the course of fire support, artillerymen from both countries, in order to disrupt the command and control system of the mock enemy, attacked their command posts, after which they carried out a systematic fire attack on newly identified targets.

“The fire was concentrated on their mortar positions and the advancing imaginary enemy.”

The MoD said that “152-mm modernised self-propelled ‘Acacia’ howitzers, a division of 120-mm self-propelled artillery ‘Nona-S’ guns, two units of multiple ‘Grad’ launch rocket systems, a ‘Sani’ mortar system, and ‘Nona-M1’ gun mortar” were used in the exercises.

Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu, 66, and Belarusian Minister of Defence Viktor Khrenin, 60, observed the exercises.

After already amassing some 100,000 soldiers along the Ukraine’s borders, Russian units are carrying out training drills with their Belarusian counterparts as the West fears it could lead to an imminent incursion.

Russia and Belarus will stage Union Resolve 2022 exercises from 10th to 20th February.