Russia says military drill not against other countries

MOSCOW

Russia's surprise combat readiness check is not directed against other countries, the country's Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said on Monday.

It is also not linked to the escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Fomin said at a meeting with the foreign military attaches in Moscow.

Last Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu announced a surprise combat readiness check in the country's armed forces, involving the troops of the southern and western military districts, separate formations of the central group, Airborne and Marines of the Northern and Pacific fleets.

During the drill, the army trained the skills of repelling terrorists and terrorist groups attacks, attempts to capture important objects, actions in case of spikes of radiation and in unfavorable chemical and sanitary-epidemiological situations.

"Joint teams of specialists of the radiation, chemical and biological protection, and medical service troops performed tasks to localize outbreak of coronavirus infection in the west and north of the country, as well as to eliminate the consequences of technological accidents," Fomin noted.

The air defense units of the western and southern military districts exercised the skill of repelling attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles of illegal armed formations, he added.

The inspection ends on July 21 and suggests holding 56 drills at 35 ground training fields and at 17 marine training sites located in the Black and Caspian seas.

Almost 150,000 soldiers, over 26,000 units of arms and military equipment, 414 aircraft, 106 ships -- including support vessels -- are engaged in the drill.

At the end of the inspection, the military authorities will choose the troops for participating in the military drill Caucasus-2020.