Vladimir Putin visited Tsugol training range

Mosco : Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia Vladimir Putin visited Tsugol training range in the Trans-Baikal Territory, where he observed Vostok-2018 military manoeuvres from the command post.

The President of Russia was accompanied on the observation deck of the central command post of the training range by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces, First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov, Minister of National Defence of the People’s Republic of China Wei Fenghe, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army of China Shao Yuanming, and Brigade Commander of the Mongolian Armed Forces Ganselem Lkhagvasuren.

Vladimir Putin inspected the mobile command post and attended the review of troops.

After the exercises, the President presented military honours to ten military personnel from Russia, China and Mongolia for their performance during the manoeuvres. Four service personnel from the Armed Forces of Russia, four from the People’s Liberation Army of China and two officers of the Armed Forces of Mongolia received the awards.

During the main stage of these manoeuvres, units of the Russian Armed Forces, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the Mongolian Armed Forces repelled a hypothetical enemy attack, launched an offensive and defeated the main hypothetical enemy forces.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army deployed motorised rifle, armoured, artillery, surface-to-air missile, combat engineer and pontoon units, as well as aviation. Units of the Mongolian Armed Forces were also involved in practical operations.

On September 11–15, the Vostok 2018 manoeuvres are held in Russia’s Far East and adjacent areas of the Pacific Ocean, involving about 300,000 Russian service personnel, over 1,000 fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and drones, up to 36,000 tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles together with up to 80 ships and support vessels.

The manoeuvres mostly aim to assess the readiness of troop control divisions planning and conducting long-range troop re-deployments, cooperation between ground forces and naval elements, to provide commanders and headquarters personnel with practical experience and to streamline their troop control skills. These are the largest manoeuvres in the history of the Russian Army.