Far from Ukraine, Russia plans big eastern war games next month
By Mark Trevelyan
LONDON (Reuters) -Russia plans to carry strategic army workouts within the east of the nation beginning subsequent month, the defence ministry stated on Tuesday, hundreds of miles from the struggle in Ukraine.
The “Vostok” (East) workouts will happen from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5. They seem meant to ship a message that Russia, regardless of the pricey five-month struggle in Ukraine, stays targeted on the defence of its total territory and succesful in army phrases of sustaining “enterprise as regular”.
However which may be a problem given Moscow’s heavy losses in males and gear in Ukraine – together with troops and {hardware} despatched there from the japanese army district the place the struggle video games will happen.
“A number of troops and equipment from the japanese MD (army district) have already been deployed, rotated, misplaced and killed in Ukraine since February, so this shall be fascinating to see what they’ll salvage,” stated Mathieu Boulegue, a army specialist at London’s Chatham Home think-tank.
In a press release, the defence ministry emphasised that its capability to stage such drills was unaffected by what it calls its “particular army operation” in Ukraine.
It stated Russia had not cancelled any coaching actions or worldwide cooperation, and the workouts could be provided with all obligatory personnel, weapons and gear.
“We draw your consideration to the truth that solely part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is concerned within the particular army operation (in Ukraine), the variety of which is kind of adequate to fulfil all of the duties set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,” the assertion stated.
CIA Director William Burns stated final week the USA estimated that 15,000 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine since February – as many deaths because the Soviet military sustained in a decade of struggle in Afghanistan from 1979 – and 3 times that many could have been wounded.
The japanese army district contains a part of Siberia and has its headquarters in Khabarovsk, close to the Chinese language border. The workouts will embrace some international forces, the defence ministry stated, with out specifying from which international locations.
The earlier Vostok drills in 2018 befell on a large scale with practically 300,000 troops reported to be concerned, together with for the primary time from the Chinese language military.
Whether or not and on what scale China takes half this yr will present vital clues to the state of bilateral relations as Putin makes an attempt to court docket Beijing at a time of heightened confrontation between Russia and the West.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Modifying by Nick Macfie, Angus MacSwan and Jonathan Oatis)
