Kremlin: Drills, ballistic missiles training should not alarm
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Kremlin assures that planned exercises with the launches of ballistic and cruise missiles are held regularly.
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Putin attends a ceremony after the Navy Day parade in St Petersburg (Sputnik)
The Russian defense ministry announced on Friday that on February 19, the country's strategic deterrence forces will conduct planned exercises including the launch of ballistic and cruise missiles. The drills will be supervised by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's aerospace forces, the Southern Military District, strategic missile forces, and the Northern and Black Sea Fleets will also take part in the maneuvers.
"The exercise of the strategic deterrence forces was planned earlier to check the readiness of military command and control bodies, launch combat crews, crews of warships and strategic missile carriers to carry out assigned tasks, as well as the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and non-nuclear forces," the ministry's statement said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov commented on the issue by saying, military drills and training launches of ballistic missiles take place regularly and should not cause concern.
"Exercises and training launches of ballistic missiles are such a training process, quite regular, it is preceded by a whole series of notifications to various countries through various channels. All this is clearly regulated, and no one has any questions, fears, nothing, because everyone is notified in advance," Peskov added.
When asked about the prospect of tensions rising as a result of Russian troop drills, he told reporters that all exercises taking place on Russian soil are completely transparent.
"Putin, most likely, will be in the situation center. Such exercises, even such training launches, are impossible without the head of state," Peskov added.
NATO and several Western countries have accused Russia in recent months of preparing an "attack in Ukraine," based on allegations that Russia has increased the number of its soldiers in areas near the Ukrainian border to 125,000 people.
For its part, Moscow rejects all these accusations, noting that the transfer of its forces in its territory is an internal matter.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, accused the US of "running the media campaign about the so-called (the imminent Russian invasion) of Ukraine."
