Belarus has up to 1.5 million potential soldiers outside its armed forces, a senior official said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

President Oleksandr Lukashenko supported Vladimir Putin in his war in Ukraine, including allowing him to invade from Belarus and allowing Russia to train newly mobilized troops in Belarus.

This month, Lukashenko ordered the formation of new volunteer territorial defense forces numbering up to 150,000 people. He declared that his army would enter the battle only in the event of an attack on Belarus.

“The structures of organizations, not the armed forces, in the event of the declaration of martial law and the transfer of the economy to a military regime, will number up to 1.5 million people,” said State Secretary Oleksandr Wolfovych. Security Council, the state news agency BelTA reports.

The population of Belarus is approximately 9.3 million people.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies 2022, the country’s professional army has about 48,000 soldiers and about 12,000 border guards.