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The Russian Navy today announced large-scale maneuvers throughout the national territory with the participation of more than 140 ships and nearly 10,000 soldiers.
“The Russian Navy will carry out a series of exercises in all areas of the fleet’s responsibility,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Navy chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov will lead naval games in January and February in which more than 60 aircraft and a thousand military equipment will also take part.
The aim of the maneuvers is “the defense of Russian national interests in the seas” and also “the fight against military threats” to the country, according to the communiqué.
The note specifies that Russian ships and aircraft will be exercised in both territorial and international waters, and separate maneuvers will also be carried out from the Mediterranean Sea to the North Sea and Okhotsk, to the Pacific Ocean and the northeastern part of the Atlantic.
In this regard, six large landing ships of the Russian Northern and Baltic Fleets have already departed from the port of Baltisk (Russian enclave of Kaliningrad) for the Mediterranean.
Coinciding with this announcement, units of the Russian Marines arrived today in Belarus for the “Allied Determination-2022” maneuvers.
These exercises, which the United States considered “worrisome” as they are taking place near the Ukrainian border, are intended to inspect the capabilities of Russian and Belarusian rapid reaction forces at four airfields and five military ranges.
Moscow denies that an invasion of Ukraine is envisaged and defends its right to conduct maneuvers on its territory and on the margins of the Russia-Belarus State Union, while denying that they represent an escalation on the border with the neighboring country.
However, the military maneuvers launched since the beginning of the year by the Russian Army have increased Western fears of an imminent escalation on the border with Ukraine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised yesterday in Kyiv more military aid to Ukraine and warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin has the capacity to “double” his military presence on the Ukrainian border in “a very short time.”
