The drills involve about 12,700 servicemen,
70 warplanes and helicopters, and up to 680 units of military hardware,
including 250 tanks.
MOSCOW,
September 14. /TASS/. The Zapad-2017 (or West 2017) joint Russian-Belarusian
military drills have kicked off in the two countries, the Russian Defense
Ministry said in a statement.
"Heads
of military administrative bodies and commanders of units involved in the
drills have received instructions from the General Staff of the Union State
concerning their training tasks," the statement reads.
The drills involve up to 12,700 troops, including 7,200 Belarusian and around 5,500 Russian troops, with up to 3,000 of them deployed to Belarus.
"Staged
tactical events and live firing exercises, involving aircraft and air defense
units, will take place at the Lepelsky, Losvido, Borisovsky, Osipovichesky,
Ruzhansky and Domanovsky training ranges, as well as in the Dretun area in
Belarus, and also at the Luzhsky, Strugi Krasnye and Pravdinsky training ranges
in Russia.
The Russian
and Belarusian chiefs of General Staff are in charge of the drills that
constitute the final stage of the joint training program of the Russian and
Belarusian Armed Forces. The drills are purely defensive and not aimed against
any countries, the Russian Defense Ministry stressed.
"The
main goals are to improve interoperability among the military staff, harmonize
troops management systems and provide commanders of various levels of
importance with an opportunity to train their skills in planning military
events and managing troops based on the experience received during modern armed
conflicts," the Russian Defense Ministry added.
The drills
will be "the biggest army training event in the current year,"
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
The joint
drills Zapad-2017 will be held at six training grounds in Russia and Belarus in
the period from September 14 through 20. They will involve about 12,700
servicemen, about 70 warplanes and helicopters, up to 680 units of military
hardware, including about 250 tanks, up to 200 artillery and multiple missile
launcher systems and mortars, and ten warships.
"The
exercises are geared to drill joint actions of our armed forces in the
interests of military security of the Union State [of Russia and
Belarus]," Shoigu said.
The main
aim of the Zapad-2017 exercise is to ensure security of the Union State with a
regional grouping of troops, said Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov, commander
of Russia’s Western Military District.
The regional force will counter conditional extremist groups penetrating into the territory of the Union State for terrorism-related activities. The extremists presumably receive material and technical support, as well as armaments and military hardware by air and sea.
"In
conditions of a rapidly changing situation troops command will be mastered, as
well as their interaction and all-round provision, defense of important state
and military facilities located in Kaliningrad region and the Republic of
Belarus," the commander said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.
According
to Kartapolov, modern approaches to the engagement of troops based on the
experience of local wars and armed conflicts, including in Syria, were used to
design the exercise legend.
The Russian
defense ministry has been repeatedly stressing that the Zapad-2017 drills have
purely defensive character and media allegations about the "Russian
threat" these drills are posing have nothing to do with the real state of
things.
"The
world’s leading media (and politicians) have been heating up public opinion by
myths of the "Russian threat." None of this paradoxical theories has
anything to do with the reality and this has been repeatedly stressed by both
Russian and Belarusian officials," Russian Deputy Defense Minister
Alexander Fomin said earlier.
"It is
evident that those countries seeking to exacerbate the situation as much as
possible ahead of the exercises make various unfounded accusations,"
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said. "These are those
countries that impede contacts of military from our states."
Source: ITAR-TASS 14-09-2017
