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Russian President Vladimir Putin was today overseeing huge military exercises within striking distance of Europe, including a beach invasion by the world's largest hovercraft. Some 2,000 servicemen and more than 200 pieces of military equipment featured in the drill, as troops stormed ashore in a war game in Kaliningrad, on the Russian border with the European Union. Elsewhere, Putin attended military exercises, which are being jointly held with Belarus, Armenia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia, at the Mulino range in the Nizhny Novgorod region in his role as commander-in-chief of Russia's armed forces. Nine ranges in Russia, including in the...

MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. The mobilization of reservists is a common practice at such large exercises as Zapad-2021, military expert Viktor Murakhovsky said on Monday. Earlier on Monday, the website of the Russian Defense Ministry reported that reservists were transferred to the Kaliningrad Region to participate in drills. "This is due to the preparation of the Zapad-2021 exercises. According to mobilization instructions, engaging reservists is a typical procedure for conducting operational and strategic exercises or for retraining," he said. According to him, reservists are also called up when declaring martial law during the deployment of the armed forces. "Mobilization training...

A recent surge in illegal migration into Lithuania represents a hybrid attack on that country and the region and European Union as a whole, defense minister Kalle Laanet (Reform) says. Laanet said Friday that: "Lithuania is our close ally, and our duty is to support them immediately in this crisis." "We are also ready to send three unmanned aircraft crews to Lithuania from August 1 to improve situational awareness at the border," he added, according to a defense ministry press release. Laanet made the remarks during a phone call with his Lithuanian opposite number Agnė Bilotaitė, while both ministers agreed...

According to Ria Novosti, General Nicolai Makarov, commander of the Russian armed forces, has said that in excess of 60,000 troops will take part in the exercise. All units of the Leningrad military district are taking part in the Ladoga-2009 exercise, where they are accompanied by several detachments of the Siberian military district, interior troops and border guards, plus the Baltic and Northern fleets.