Russia has deployed 24 Baltic Fleet warships and vessels, along with heavy fighter jets and bombers, as reinforcement for military drills in the westernmost Kaliningrad region while NATO stages its own war games across the border.
On Wednesday, Moscow deployed a grouping of 24 Baltic Fleet
warships and vessels for military drills in its exclave on the
Baltic Sea coast. The drills were launched on Tuesday in response
to NATO’s international drills – Saber Strike 2014 and BALTOPS
2014 –near Russia’s border.
"The squadrons of warships are performing the tasks of
ensuring the protection of the state border of the Russian
Federation, protecting marine communications, providing for
shipping safety, organizing air defense, and searching for and
detecting surface ships and submarines of the imaginary
enemy," said Russia's Defense Ministry.
The ministry added that the newest Su-34 Fullback fighter bombers
and Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft have also taken off from
their air base in Voronezh region to join the war games in
Kalinigrad.
"Tu-22M3 long-range bombers are in the state of readiness to
patrol the area of the exercises. An A-50 long-range airborne
warning and control system aircraft is involved in the drills for
reconnaissance purposes."
The presence of Russia’s military force in the war games is
“equitable” with the number of NATO troops concentrated
in the three nearby Baltic states – Latvia, Lithuania, and
Estonia – which are hosting the drills from June 9-21, the
Defense Ministry noted.
The drills come amid heightened tensions between Russia and the
West over the Ukrainian crisis. Troops from the US, Canada,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, and
the UK taking part in the war games beefed up their
presence near the Russian border, accusing Moscow of having an
aggressive stance in the Ukrainian conflict.