Source: The Economic Times
MOSCOW: Russia will next month hold its biggest war games in nearly four decades, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian news agencies on Tuesday, a massive military exercise that will also involve the Chinese and Mongolian armies.
The exercise, called Vostok-2018 (East-2018), will take place in central and eastern Russian military districts and involve almost 300,000 troops, over 1,000 military aircraft, two of Russia's naval fleets, and all its airborne units, agencies quoted Shoigu as saying.
The exercise, called Vostok-2018 (East-2018), will take place in central and eastern Russian military districts and involve almost 300,000 troops, over 1,000 military aircraft, two of Russia's naval fleets, and all its airborne units, agencies quoted Shoigu as saying.
The manoeuvres will take place at a time of heightened tension between the west and Russia, which is concerned about what it says is a n unjustified build-up of the NATO military alliance on its western flank.
NATO says it has beefed up its forces in eastern europe to deter potential Russian military action after moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014 and backed a pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine.
The war games which will take place form Sept 11-15 are likely to displease Japan which has already complained about what it says is a Russian military build-up in the Far East. Japanese Prime Miniester Shinzo Abe is due to attend an economic forum in Vladivostok during the same period. Shoigu told news agencies the war games would be the biggest since a soviet military exercise, Zapad-81 in 1981.
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