More than 300,000 Russian, Mongolian and Chinese soldiers begin the largest military exercise in history.
Russia has just begun its largest military exercise in history, called Vostok 2018, mobilizing more than 300,000 soldiers and soldiers from Mongolia and China. However, this exercise has been criticized by NATO as a rehearsal for large-scale conflict.
The Vostok 2018 exercise began on September 11 and will last for a week. The Russian military has compared the show of force to the Soviet Union's Zapad 81 exercise in 1981, which involved 150,000 soldiers from the Warsaw Pact.
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| Vostok 2018 will be the largest military exercise in Russia's history |
However, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Vostok 2018 will be much larger in scale with 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 pieces of military equipment, 1,000 aircraft and 80 warships of various types.
The Russian army will use its most modern weapons today such as Iskander tactical ballistic missiles, T-80, T-90 tanks or Su-34 and Su-35 fighter jets. At sea, the Russian fleet will mobilize several escort ships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles.
Russian President Putin is expected to inspect the exercise after attending an economic forum in Vladivostok.
According to NATO representative Dylan White, Russia's military exercises show that NATO's views on Moscow are absolutely correct, which is to increase defense spending and military presence.
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated sharply since the annexation of Crimea and the Ukraine crisis in 2014. Since then, Moscow has held a series of large-scale military exercises in the Caucasus, Baltic and Arctic.