MOSCOW, June 24 (RIA Novosti) – Troops of the Western Military District have returned to their respective sites of permanent deployment having completed exercise in Kaliningrad, spokesman for the Western Military District, Col. Oleg Kochetkov said Tuesday.
“The troops and forces of the Western Military District, as well other military units assigned to Western Military District for the training period, returned to the places of their permanent deployment and began the planned combat training activities of the summer training period,” Kochetkov said.
The joint exercise of Russia’s Baltic Fleet, Air Force and paratroopers took place in the Kaliningrad Region of Russia at the same time as NATO’s Saber Strike 2014 and Baltops 2014 exercises. The Russian Defense Ministry earlier said that the number of troops deployed by Russia for the Kaliningrad military exercises is comparable to the NATO drills in terms of personnel and military hardware.
NATO has been flexing its muscle near the Russian border and actively pushing for military build-up in Eastern Europe since Crimea rejoined Russia in March. Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern over the West’s aggressive pressure on Russia and the alarming attempts of the Alliance to antagonize Russia as a source of threat to global security.
