Military drills underway in Russian occupied Tskhinvali
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Tank units from the fourth Russian military base are taking part in military exercises in the Russian occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region, Radio Liberty Georgian service reports.
30 tank units participated in the drills which involved the destruction of moving targets.
Unmanned aerial vehicles were used during the exercises. They fired at a distance of 300 to 2,000 meters from the artillery installations,” the press service of Russian Southern Military District reports.
A total of four bilateral battalions and one regiment are conducting tactical exercises in the Stavropol Krai, Rostov region, the Chechen Republic, the Volgograd region and the Crimea.
About 10,000 servicemen and 800 pieces of combat equipment are involved in the exercises including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery pieces and anti-aircraft missile systems.
Russia recognised the independence of Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region on August 26, 2008, following the Russia-Georgia war.
Only four other countries – Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria – share Russia’s position regarding the occupied Georgian territories’ status.
The exercises are being conducted in Volgograd, Rostov, Stavropol, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Ossetia, Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Armenia.
Russia is conducting military exercises in Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions, Russian media outlets report.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze says that the increased militarisation of the two occupied regions of Georgia Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) by Russia is alarming and Georgia is in need of the support of the international community.
The Russian 58th army is conducting drills in Georgia’s occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region, with the involvement of local "operative groups and divisions”, Russian and Tskhinvali media reports.
The de facto foreign intelligence service head in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region, Aleksey Maksimov, has met with the Taliban co-founder and current vice-PM in the new caretaker government of Afghanistan, Abdul Ghani Baradar, to discuss ‘regional security and the security issues of the two countries,’ the Taliban’s spokesperson Mohammad Naeem has tweeted.
Military exercises are planned in Georgia’s Russian occupied Abkhazia on October 19-20 where military servicemen of the defence ministry of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia (Tskhinvali region) will participate along with local armed forces, Radio Liberty Georgian service reports. The Defence Minister of the occupied Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) Ibrahim Gaseev received an invitation to take part in the drills from his Abkhaz counterpart Vladimir Anua.