Global Courant 2023-04-14 18:41:09
In addition to missile launches, exercises will also involve nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other combat aircraft.
The entire Russian Pacific fleet is on high alert for rapid exercises launching training missiles in a massive show of force amid tensions with the West over the fighting in Ukraine.
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said the purpose of Friday’s war games was to test the Russian armed forces’ ability to respond to aggression.
In addition to the missile launches, the exercises will also involve nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other combat aircraft in addition to Pacific Fleet naval aviation, Shoigu said.
The Russian army has concentrated most of its troops on the front lines in Ukraine, but also continued to hold regular exercises across Russia to train its troops and demonstrate their readiness.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the war games as part of regular training aimed at “maintaining the necessary level of readiness of the armed forces”.
Shoigu noted that the scenario provides a response to an adversary’s attempt to land on Sakhalin Island and the southern Kuril Islands.
Japan claims territorial rights in the Kuril Islands, which it calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them in the closing days of World War II, and the dispute has prevented the countries from signing a peace treaty that formally ended their hostilities.
Last year, Russia announced it had suspended peace talks with Japan in protest of Tokyo’s sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.
In recent years, Russia has built up its military presence on the islands by deploying advanced fighter jets, anti-ship missiles and air defense systems.
Pacific Fleet exercises began days before a planned trip to Moscow by China’s Defense Minister General Li Shangfu.
Russia’s defense ministry said Shoigu and Li would discuss “prospects of bilateral defense cooperation and acute issues of global and regional security”.
A three-day visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping last month demonstrated the partnership between the two nations in the face of Western attempts to isolate Russia over Ukraine and gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a political lift.
Moscow and Beijing have accused Washington of isolating them and holding back their development while challenging the United States for regional and global leadership.
Putin and Xi said they would increase contacts between their armies and organize more joint naval and air patrols and exercises, but there was no indication that China would help Russia with weapons, as the US and other Western allies feared.
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