Western Operational Command
Site ID
This record matches the headquarters of Belarus’s Western Operational Command in Grodno. The Ministry of Defence contact page gives the command’s address as 9 Lenina Street, 230023 Grodno; the official pages reviewed identify the site as the Western Operational Command but do not publicly display a military-unit number, so the v/ch 03587 designation was not independently confirmed from the official pages reviewed. ([mil.by](https://www.mil.by/ru/forces/sv/zok/contacts/))
Institutional Role
Belarusian MoD states that the command’s core functions are to maintain combat and mobilization readiness, direct the day-to-day activity and training of subordinate troops, plan the employment of subordinate and attached forces, coordinate defence preparation within its area of responsibility, and assist civil authorities during disasters when required. The public structure page confirms an operational-command headquarters with branch/service units, special troops, technical-support units, and rear-support units. ([mil.by](https://www.mil.by/ru/forces/sv/zok/appointment/))
Lineage
The command is the successor to the Soviet 28th Army formation long based in Grodno. The Belarusian MoD history page says the 28th Combined-Arms Army’s headquarters was located in Grodno after the war, that it became the 28th Army Corps in 1993, and that the Western Operational Command was created from that corps in December 2001. ([mil.by](https://www.mil.by/ru/forces/sv/zok/history/))
Leadership
As of the MoD leadership page current in 2026, the commander is Major General Vadzim Suray; the chief of staff and first deputy commander is Aliaksandr Lavrenov; and Dmitry Bitny is listed as deputy commander. This supersedes the older metadata naming Vladimir Bely: August 2024 presidential reporting said Bely moved to head the main combat-training directorate and Suray was appointed to command the Western Operational Command. ([mil.by](https://www.mil.by/ru/forces/sv/zok/command/))
Recent Force Development
Recent open-source reporting indicates the command remains active in readiness checks and adaptation of training. In March 2025, Suray said a Western Operational Command unit formed with reservists had reached the final stage of a readiness check and that training was incorporating lessons on UAV use and electronic warfare; in August 2025, a UAV-operator classroom opened at the 111th Guards Artillery Brigade with Suray present. Separately, OSCE-notified Belarus exercises have used Area 230 Obuz-Lesnovskiy together with Gozhsky and Brestsky ranges, which is consistent with a western Belarus training network supporting this headquarters’ area of responsibility. ([sputnik.by](https://sputnik.by/20250305/surov-glavnaya-zadacha-armii---gotovnost-k-zaschite-gosudarstva-1094185145.html?utm_source=openai))