Context: Since January 16, 2026, the Belarusian army has been undergoing combat readiness checks. Alexander Lukashenko will be inspecting the troops until spring. Without notifying the Ministry of Defense or the General Staff, he had already brought one of the mechanized formations near Lepel to ad hoc combat readiness. Servicemen spent a week at the range in freezing temperatures, snow, and ice storm. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are conducting their scheduled inspection of the troops’ combat readiness.
In the Novosti program on CTV on January 28, 2026, featuring the story about troops’ checks, the host discussed the advantages of the Belarusian army over its Western neighbors.
“As [State Secretary of the Security Council] Aliaksandr Valfovich pointed out, one of the main conditions is that servicemen must be professional, trained, and patriotic. Shoulder straps should be worn by those willing to defend national interests, not by contract soldiers and mercenaries, which is the case in Poland, for example. The neighboring state’s army is large, with about 200,000 soldiers, but they are mercenaries.”
Poland does have a contract army. In peacetime, conscription is not compulsory. Service is entirely voluntary, and specific terms do not limit its duration. This is spelled out in Polish law. However, a mercenary and a contract soldier are not the same. International law clearly defines a mercenary as a foreigner who is specifically recruited to participate in hostilities, is not a citizen of the country in which the conflict is taking place, and is not a member of its armed forces. By definition, a member of the Polish army who has entered professional military service cannot be a mercenary because they are part of the state’s official armed forces.
The Belarusian army also has contract enlistees. This is actively promoted as an intentional and patriotic choice. In March 2024, the Ministry of Defense announced that the number of contract soldiers in the Belarusian army had grown since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Belarus also maintains a system of compulsory conscription for military service.