Russian forces around Ukraine and the Caucasus have been called to a snap
drill on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Shoigu told state news agency Itar-Tass on Monday.
The Russian military saw a spike in mass exercises in 2015, performing at least 4,000 drills in the first nine months
alone—500 more than over the whole of 2014. Over the last two years, spontaneous
drills have been repeatedly carried out near sensitive borders, often mirroring an increase in diplomatic tensions between Russia and the
West. In February 2015, Baltic defense ministries told Newsweekthey
were alarmed by the increase of Russian snap drills near their borders and did
not rule out a scenario where an exercise could turn into a rapid assault on their territories.
Monday’s drill involves the ground troops and airborne forces stationed in
Russia’s Southern Military District, which spans the territory of Russia’s
Rostov region, bordering eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk and Luhansk
regions.
The district also includes Russia’s Black Sea and Caspian Sea ports as well
as its presence in the Azov Sea, which it shares exclusively with Ukraine. The
Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia from the territory of Ukraine last year,
was also made part of the district. Naval units in the area will also take
part in the drill.
Shoigu said that as of 5 a.m. Moscow time on Monday morning, southern
forces had gone into full combat alert, ready to carry out “a wide spectrum of
tasks.” The minister added that besides the army and the airborne forces, the
air force and anti-aircraft defense units were also due to take part in these
comprehensive practice maneuvers, but he stressed that the nature of the
exercise was defensive.
The Southern Military District is territorially the smallest one, but it
spans several volatile borders, both external and internal. Besides Ukraine’s
separatist regions, the district covers Russia’s border with Georgia and
Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia territories. Russian federal
entities with a history of anti-Moscow separatism also fall within the Southern
Military District’s remits.
The reason for Putin’s request for a snap drill was not reported, however
it follows an apparent increase in violence by pro-Russian rebels in eastern
Ukraine, according to Kiev’s joint command on military operations in the east. Ukrainian forces claim that separatist violations of
the ceasefire in the region over the past day have exceeded 60, double the
number of daily violations observed regularly in previous weeks.
Russia denies that it supplies the rebels with arms or commands them in any
official capacity.
A study of NATO and Russian exercises by London-based think tank the European
Leadership Network warned in August that the two sides appear to be preparing
for conflict with one another and that the rise in the number of snap military
drills at their external borders increases the risk of accidental war.
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