Russia has no choice but to keep beefing up its combat capabilities in the Southern Military District taking symmetric measures to neutralize threats to its national security, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.
According to the defense chief, a total of 16 planes from the US and British tactical air forces have been deployed on a permanent basis in Romania since April. Beginning this year the United States alone conducted over 130 reconnaissance flights along Russia’s southern borders. In addition, large-scale NATO military drills, involving over 25,000 troops from 22 countries wrapped up several days ago on the western coast of the Black Sea.
"Under the current conditions, Russia is forced to take symmetric measures on eliminating emerging threats to national security, to take measures of strategic deterrence, and to increase combat capabilities in the Southern Military District," Shoigu stated.
Shoigu said that one of the important steps in the direction of increasing the military potential in the Southern Military District was the formation of the combined-arms army in March 2017. "Moreover, we have formed four battalions of military police, who are currently implementing tasks in de-escalation zones in Syria," TASS cited him as saying.
The defense minister added that all organizational efforts are aligned with supplies of modern weapons and military hardware. "Therefore, we can speak about the positive dynamics in the organization of events on the combat training," Shoigu concluded.
