MOSCOW – Russia Friday announced to stage strategic deterrence force drills amid growing tensions at the country’s border with Ukraine.
Russian Defense Ministry said that the regular exercise will be held on February 19 (Saturday), adding that all foreign partners have been informed in this regard.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the West should not worry over the military drills as they had nothing to do with it.
President Vladimir Putin also said on Friday he would oversee military cooperation measures together with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on February 19, TASS reported.
“Of course, we will talk about the regional situation and assess how military cooperation is developing,” Putting said at a meeting with Lukashenko in the Kremlin, suggesting the agenda.
“Now an active phase of military drills is in progress and tomorrow we will participate in one of serious measures in this series of military cooperation,” he said.
Dmitry Peskov also confirmed that the drills will be observed by President Putin.
“Putin will most likely be in the situation control center. Such drills and training launches, naturally, can’t be held without the head of state. You know about the famous nuclear suitcase, the red button and so on,” Peskov told reporters.
Russia would launch ballistic and cruise missiles during the drills, said country’s defence ministry.
As the ministry emphasized, the strategic deterrence force drills have been planned in advance and are intended “to inspect the preparedness of military command centers, launch combat teams, the crews ofcombat ships and strategic missile carriers for accomplishing assigned missions and the reliability of the strategic nuclear and conventional forces’ weapons.”.
