Russian defence forces conduct war exercises in the Black Sea, Baltic and

Moscow: After the withdrawal from the INF treaty, the Russian defence forces have started comprehensive war exercises, against the background of the US missile testing and the ongoing G7 summit in France. The Russian Southern Military District, Central Military District, Baltic Sea Fleet and the Arctic sector have begun war drills simultaneously. More than 10,000 soldiers, 30 warships, 100 fighter jets and helicopters and hundreds of tanks have been deployed for the exercises.

The United States and Russia have been reeling under the tension over the INF treaty. As per the agreement signed in 1987, both these countries had agreed to avoid the development of short and medium-range ground-based missiles. The deal banned missiles with ranges of 500 to 1,000 kilometres and 1,000 to 5,000 kilometres. Nevertheless, both the countries have been accusing each other of violating the agreement and are making different statements about the defence preparedness and nuclear weapons.

These statements could trigger an arms race, between these two countries as well as at the international level, is the fear expressed by the analysts. However, both these countries have accused each other for the tension over the INF treaty, taking an adamant stand of not compromising on defence preparedness. Against this background, by conducting missile tests in the last week, both the United States and Russia have demonstrated their resolve not to retreat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the entire Russian defence force to reply to the retaliatory testing by the United States. Testing of the nuclear missiles in the Arctic, on Saturday, is said to be the first phase of this reply. After that, simultaneous exercises have been started in various parts of Russia, since Monday, and the scale of the exercises is supposedly an effort to warn the western countries.

The exercises in the Southern Military Command of the Russian forces have been the most extensive and attention-grabbing exercises. All the three wings of the defence forces, army, navy and air force, have been participating, and more than 8,000 soldiers have been deployed for the exercises. Along with the army units, more than 100 tanks, 30 fighter jets, 60 helicopters and ten warships have participated in the exercises. There was a demonstration of the Crimea attack in the exercises with the highlight being the missile attack by the Russian SU-30SM fighter jets.

Naval exercises are being conducted near the Russian base of Kaliningrad, in the Baltic region and a minimum of 20 warships are said to be participating in the exercises. Russian sources informed that preference had been given to Surface Ship Battles and Air Attack Weapons, during these exercises. The Baston coastal Defence Missile System was also tested. Exercises are also organized at the Taymyr Peninsula in the Russian Arctic region which includes 85 units of the Russian army, SU-24 Supersonic fighter jets.