Russia launches large military exercise Zapad 2017 in Belarus

NewsBharati    14-Sep-2017
Total Views |

Moscow, September 14: Russia’s one of the largest military exercises since 2014, on the territory of Russia and Belarus. The Zapad 2017 joint strategic military exercise is involving 12,700 servicemen from the participating nations. Many NATO member states have expressed their concern over this drill.

Ukraine which is involved in a long term conflict with Russia since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula has told could be a prelude to an invasion. NATO will send three experts exercises, following invitations from Russia and Belarus. But NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg previously said they don’t see any imminent threat posed by any NATO member by the drills. But neighborhood countries of Russia from NATO alliance could not stop worrying.

On the other hand, senior Russian and Belarusian officials said that the exercises is of defense nature and does not pose any threat to any country. In addition to that, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko stated earlier that these exercises would be open for foreign observers.

“There are no plans for any sort of invasion into the territory of neighboring countries. The main goal of the exercise is to practice relevant strategies for the battle against terrorism and to practice the use of the armed forces for that battle,” Russian deputy defense minister said.

Russia Belarus Zapad 2017 Joint drill NATO Ukraine