Context: In May, Belarus and Russia held joint exercises to practice using nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. Against this backdrop, state TV channels and radio stations began actively discussing the growing threat from Western neighbors and the strengthening of NATO’s military presence near Belarus’s borders. The show hosts and guests synced in, drawing parallels with the events of World War II.
On May 19, 2026, political analyst Aliaksei Bialiajeu appeared on the Budni talk show on Alpha Radio and SBTV, where he claimed that Germany was deploying a unit with the same number as a formation that took part in the attack on the USSR in 1941.
“We see that Germany has expressed its intention to establish the largest and strongest army in Europe. Meanwhile, they are moving 5,000 troops directly to the Belarusian border. This act bears a sad symbolism. The 45th Brigade attacked Belarus in 1941, and now it’s being placed on our borders again,” he said.
Germany is indeed stationing a new 45th Bundeswehr Armored Brigade in Lithuania, named the “Lithuania” brigade. It is being established gradually, with full deployment planned for completion by 2027.
The German 45th Armored Brigade did not exist in 1941. A tank division used this number, but it only appeared at the end of World War II in 1945. This unit existed for about a month but did not fight on the Eastern Front. There was a Wehrmacht infantry division under that number, not a tank brigade. The division participated in the storming of the Brest Fortress in the summer of 1941. In other words, it was a unit of a different branch and had nothing to do with modern German armored brigades.
Political observers Aliaksei Volkau and Andrei Sych made a similar historical analogy on the program Volkov and Sych aired on the First Information Channel. They discussed the deployment of the Bundeswehr’s 371st Mechanized Infantry Battalion to Lithuania. In particular, Andrei Sych stated that it had been stationed in Lithuania during World War II:
“This is the issue of historical parallels, you know. Again, they’re burning villages in Lithuania to create a training ground and deployment site for this mechanized force in the Baltic state. The parallels are really horrible: the unit names match, too. More precisely, these units’ numbers match those of the units that were stationed there during World War II,” he said on the May 9, 2026 show.
During World War II, there was no 371st Mechanized Infantry Battalion; instead, the Wehrmacht fielded the 371st Infantry Division. After its formation in 1942, the unit was sent to the southern sector of the front near Stalingrad, where it was destroyed. This division was not stationed in Lithuania.
Lithuanian historical documents also make no mention of German units numbered 371 being stationed in Lithuania during the war.
The claim about the burning of villages in Lithuania is also false. A total of 77 households are located within the area where the new training ground is being constructed in Lithuania. The owners were given the option to either stay or sell the property to the state within five years under a simplified procedure. Only thirteen houses are located directly within the future firing range. These houses will be purchased with compensation. Thus, the issue concerns the purchase of real estate from the population, not the destruction of settlements.
