( February 25, Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin
ordered an urgent drill to test the combat readiness of his armed forces across
western Russia on Wednesday, flexing Moscow's military muscle amid tension with
the West over Ukraine. Russia said the exercises were not linked to events in
Ukraine, where the ouster of a president who turned his back on the European
Union and sought closer ties with Moscow has raised worries in the West over
possibility of military intervention.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said
the training drills were not linked to events in Ukraine,
and Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said they had been previously
planned. He said they would involve about 150,000 military personnel. The western
district encompasses most of western Russia
and borders Ukraine, which lies between
NATO nations and Russia. Forces must "be ready to bomb unfamiliar testing
grounds" as part of the drill, Shoigu told a Defence Ministry meeting.
The United States and European
nations have warned Russia against military intervention in Ukraine, a former
Soviet republic that Putin has called a "brother nation" and wants to
be part of a Eurasian Union he is building in the region.
Russian officials have said Moscow
will not interfere in Ukraine, while accusing the West of doing so. Interfax
cited the speaker of the upper parliament house, Valentina Matviyenko, as
saying on Wednesday it would not use force. But Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
said on Monday that Russia's interests and its citizens in Ukraine were under
threat, language reminiscent of statements justifying Russia's invasion of
Georgia in 2008, when he was president.
Shoigu said the drill would also
test the counter-terrorism measures in place at military units. Russian
officials have referred to some of the Ukrainian opposition forces whose
protests pushed Yanukovich from power as "terrorists".
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