CHITA – Russia on Tuesday launched what it has called its largest everymilitary drills, with hundreds of thousands of Russian troops taking partalong with Chinese soldiers in a massive show of force that has rattled theWest.
The week-long war games dubbed “Vostok-2018” (East-2018), “have kicked off”in far eastern Russia and on the Pacific Ocean, the defence ministry saidin a statement.
It released video footage of military vehicles, planes, helicopters andships getting into position for the initial stage of the drills.
The drills, which include the Chinese and Mongolian armies, have beencondemned by NATO as a rehearsal for “large-scale conflict”.
President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend Vostok-2018 after hosting aneconomic forum in Russia’s far eastern city Vladivostok where his Chinesecounterpart Xi Jinping is one of the prominent guests.
The military exercises come at a time of escalating tensions between Moscowand the West over accusations of Russian interference in western affairsand ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
The Russian army has compared the show of force to the USSR’s 1981 wargames that saw between 100,000 and 150,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers take partin “Zapad-81” (West-81) — the largest military exercises of the Soviet era.
But Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said these exercises are even larger,with 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 military vehicles, 1,000 planes and 80warships taking part in the drills.
“Imagine 36,000 military vehicles moving at the same time: tanks, armouredpersonnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles — and all of this, ofcourse, in conditions as close to a combat situation as possible,” Shoigusaid.——————————
*Latest hardware*——————————
The Russian army is rolling out all of its latest additions for the event:Iskander missiles that can carry nuclear warheads, T-80 and T-90 tanks andits recent Su-34 and Su-35 fighter planes.
At sea, the Russian fleet is deploying several frigates equipped withKalibr missiles that have been used in Syria.
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Wednesday will see games featuring anti-aircraft technology, while the mainevent will be on Thursday, the defence ministry told journalists coveringthe event in eastern Siberia.
NATO said that Vostok-2018 “demonstrates Russia’s focus on exercisinglarge-scale conflict”.
“It fits into a pattern we have seen over some time — a more assertiveRussia, significantly increasing its defence budget and its militarypresence,” the alliance’s spokesman Dylan White said late August.
Last month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s “ability todefend itself in the current international situation which is oftenaggressive and unfriendly to our country is justified, essential andwithout alternative”.
Relations between Russia and the West declined sharply in 2014 withMoscow’s annexation of Crimea and the subsequent conflict in easternUkraine.
The Kremlin has also accused NATO of expanding westwards and threateningRussian national security.
Moscow has increased the number of its large-scale military exercises inthe Caucasus, the Baltic and the Arctic in recent years.
Russia’s previous military exercise in the region, Vostok-2014, was almosthalf the size, with 155,000 soldiers participating.
The country’s war games in Eastern Europe last year, Zapad-2017, saw 12,700troops take part according to Moscow. Ukraine and the Baltic states saidthe true number was far bigger. – APP/AFP
