MOSCOW | Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the large-scale military maneuvers involving several allied countries, including China, in the Russian Far East on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the agencies as saying. Russian press.
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Mr. Putin arrived at the Sergeyevsky military training ground, one of the sites of these exercises, dubbed Vostok-2022 (Orient-2022), Mr. Peskov said.
The maneuvers are to take place until September 7 and come as Moscow has been waging a massive offensive against Ukraine since February.
“A closed-door meeting” with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov “is underway,” said the Kremlin spokesman, adding that Mr. Putin “will be able to observe the final phase of the exercises’ after this meeting.
The Vostok-2022 drills kicked off last Thursday with combat aircraft maneuvers, anti-aircraft unit moves and mine clearance simulations in the Sea of Japan, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
According to Moscow, more than 50,000 soldiers, more than 5,000 pieces of arms and military equipment, including 140 aircraft and 60 warships and support ships must be mobilized during these exercises.
Soldiers from several border countries or allies of Russia, such as Belarus, Syria, India and China, are taking part.
Taiwan: Chinese military drone entered its air defense zone
Taiwan said a Chinese military drone entered its air defense zone on Monday, yet another incursion as tensions between Beijing and Taipei are at their highest level in decades.
The drone, identified by the Taipei Defense Ministry as a BZK-007 aircraft, entered southwest Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), accompanied by eight Chinese military aircraft.
Taiwan’s ADIZ is larger than its airspace and includes part of that of China and even includes a portion of the mainland.
China has dramatically increased the number of its incursions southwest of Taiwan’s restricted area in the past two years, but the use of military drones there is rare.
The last incursion of such an aircraft reported by Taipei was in October 2020.
Last week, Taiwanese soldiers stationed on an islet off mainland China shot down an unidentified commercial drone – a first for Taipei forces, after a sudden wave of incursions by small, commercially available drones in recent weeks .
The 23 million inhabitants of Taiwan live under the constant threat of an invasion from Beijing, which considers the island as part of its territory to be reconquered one day, and if necessary by force.
Beijing has embarked on a show of force in retaliation for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last month.
After the trip of the American official, China sent warships, missiles and fighter jets to the waters and skies of Taiwan for a week. These exercises were the largest and most aggressive since the mid-1990s.
Some 446 aerial incursions by Chinese warplanes took place in Taiwan in August, and 1,100 since the start of the year, according to a database compiled by AFP from Taiwanese military reports.