Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday said Minsk planned to buy $1 billion worth of Russian arms as he oversaw massive Moscow-led military drills that rattled some EU countries.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that sporting green military uniform at a test range near the city of Baranovichi in western Belarus, the strongman praised Russian and Belarusian troops for their "high state of readiness" to jointly defend their borders and counter what he called "hybrid aggression" from the West.

On Friday, Russia and Belarus launched military drills involving about 200,000 personnel, one of Moscow's biggest exercises in recent years.

Lukashenko also thanked Putin for agreeing to supply Belarus with weapons valued at more than $1 billion by 2025.