Big military drill starts in Russia


On September 11, Vostok-2018 drill started in the Russian Far East.

It involves about 300 thousand Russian servicemen, more than 1,000 aircraft, helicopters and drones, up to 36 thousand tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles, up to 80 ships and support vessels, the Russian Defense Ministry reports.

The drill will last until September 17 and will be held in two stages will include the deployment of a grouping of forces in the Far East, the building up of a grouping of naval forces, the management of inter-service groupings of troops with practice of defensive and offensive operations fulfilled.

The military formations of the People’s Liberation Army of China will join the drill at the “Tsugol” training ground.

Excercises of this magnitude are the biggest in 37 years, The previous big ones being the exercises “Zapad-81”.

Belarus has its own drills

At the same time, Belarus continues command-and-staff exercises with the participation of 7,500 military personnel, which began on September 6 and will last until september 12. In an interview with Belsat, military analyst Alyaksandr Alesin related these two events:

“As for Russia, I want to highlight the fact that drill “Vostok 2018” is taking place almost at the same time, and, it seems to me, these exercises are coordinated. General Ivashov, the chief Russian military expert, said that the movement during the drill happening to the east, and we are looking to the west. Therefore, I think that there is synchronized coordination between the Belarusian and Russian armed forces. If we recall the “Zapad 2017”, simultaneously with this event Russia conducted its exercises coordinated with the “Zapad” on its territory. The situation is similar, only here Russia plays the first violin, but it is coordinated with Belarus. “

belsat.eu

TWITTER