Russian army official says media mistook exercise for pooling units along Korean border

A number of Russian and international media said on Friday Russia was ostensibly building up the strength of its units on the border with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Movements of army units in the area of the Korean border, which a number of mass media outlets have mistaken for an amassing of troops, are scheduled ones, as the units return to their permanent bases after a major military exercise in Buryatia, eastern Siberia, the official spokesman for Russia’s Eastern Military District told TASS.

A number of Russian and international media said on Friday Russia was ostensibly building up the strength of its units on the border with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. As a proof of this, they published some video footage showing a freight train with armored vehicles

"Practically the entire system of air defense forces of the Eastern Military District was engaged in the exercise and about 300 missile launches were held in the course of the drill in combat control over the air defense units and the Air Force," said Alexander Gordeyev, the spokesman.

He also said the inspection of combat training done during the winter began on April 3 and would be over on April 29.

"The first phase of the exercise alone embraced more than 80 combined units and military bases of the Eastern Military District," Gordeyev said. "We had 22 drills of different types," Gordeyev said.

"Phase two includes inspections with full combat alerts, marches on the vehicles entered in the tables of equipment and by railway transport, and drills at special training grounds where the troops will be expected to fulfill special tasks," he said.

Gordeyev recalled that redeployment of troops over bid distances and drills on unfamiliar terrain had become regular practice with the Russian Armed Forces in recent years.

Source: ITAR-TASS 23-04-2017