The Western Operational Command (ZOK) is a

command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards ...

of the

Belarus Ground Forces The Belarusian Ground Forces is a service branch of the Armed Forces of Belarus. History The ground forces were founded on March 20, 1992, on the same day the Defence Ministry of Belarus was established. By 1994, the ground forces had over 5 ...

. It is headquartered in

Grodno Grodno (russian: Гродно, pl, Grodno; lt, Gardinas) or Hrodna ( be, Гродна ), is a city in western Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, 300 km (186 mi) from Minsk, about 15 km (9 mi) from the Polish ...

. It is composed of two Mechanized Brigades and an artillery brigade. The command was created in 2001 from the 28th Army Corps, the former 28th Army.

History

The Western Operational Command traces its lineage back to the Soviet 28th Army. In July 1945, the 28th Army headquarters was relocated to

. By 1988, the army was composed of the

6th Guards Tank Division 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second ...

28th Tank Division 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

50th Guards Motor Rifle Division 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

and the 514th Territorial Training Center. On 20 March 1992, the army was taken over by Belarus. In 1993, the 28th Army was downsized to become the 28th Army Corps. In 1994, the 50th Division became a separate mechanized brigade, and was further reduced to a storage base in 2001, then finally disbanded in 2006. The Western Operational Command was created in December 2001 from the 28th Army Corps. It participated in the exercises "Neman-2001", "Berezina-2002", "Chistoye Nebo-2003", "Shchit Otechestva-2004", "Shchit Soyuza-2006", "Zapad-2009", "Shchit Soyuza-2011" and the joint strategic exercises with

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

military units "Zapad-2013". In 2015, Colonel Viktor Hrenin (former deputy commander of the command) became the command's head and Colonel Oleg Melnikov was appointed chief of staff of the command.

Formations and units

The command is composed of the following units. * 6th Guards Kiev-Berlin Mechanized Brigade (Grodno; former 6th Guards Tank Division) *

11th Guards Berlin-Carpathian Mechanized Brigade The 11th Guards Mechanized Brigade is a unit of the Armed Forces of Belarus based in Slonim. The 11th Guards Brigade traces its history back to the 1942 formation of the 6th Tank Corps of the Soviet Army during World War II. World War II Formed i ...

(

Slonim Slonim ( be, Сло́нім, russian: Сло́ним, lt, Slanimas, lv, Sloņima, pl, Słonim, yi, סלאָנים, ''Slonim'') is a city in Grodno Region, Belarus, capital of the Slonimski rajon. It is located at the junction of the Ščar ...

) *

111th Artillery Brigade 111th may refer to: *111th Delaware General Assembly, a meeting of the legislative branch of the state government *111th Engineer Brigade (United States), a combat engineer brigade of the United States Army * 111th Field Artillery Regiment (United ...

(

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus ** Brest Region ** Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest ** Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Bre ...

) * 62nd Antiaircraft Missile Brigade – equipped with

9K33 Osa The 9K33 ''Osa'' (, literally "wasp"; NATO reporting name SA-8 ''Gecko'') is a highly mobile, low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and fielded in 1972. Its export version n ...

SAM * 215th Separate Radio Engineering Regiment * 36th Separate Radio Battalion * 255th Separate Radio Engineering Regiment of Special Purpose (

Novogrudok Novogrudok ( be, Навагрудак, Navahrudak; lt, Naugardukas; pl, Nowogródek; russian: Новогрудок, Novogrudok; yi, נאַוואַראַדאָק, Novhardok, Navaradok) is a town in the Grodno Region, Belarus. In the Middle A ...

;

ELINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

) * 557th Engineer Regiment (Grodno) * 74th Berlin Separate Communications Regiment (Grodno) * 815th Logistics Center (

Baranovichi Baranavichy ( ; be, Бара́навічы, Łacinka: , ; russian: Бара́новичи; yi, באַראַנאָוויטש; pl, Baranowicze) is a city in the Brest Region of western Belarus, with a population (as of 2019) of 179,000. It is n ...

) * 28th Weapons and Equipment Storage Base (Baranovichi; former 28th Tank Division) * 50th Donetsk Weapons and Equipment Storage Base (Brest; former

, disbanded 2006) * 108th Separate Material Security Regiment

References

{{Belarusian Ground Forces Military units and formations of Belarus Military units and formations established in 2001