Moscow launched on Tuesday military exercises on its westernmost, in a move eyed as a response to the NATO drills near the Russian border.

Moscow launched on Tuesday military exercises on its westernmost, in a move eyed as a response to the NATO drills near the Russian border.

“We conduct military training simultaneously with the international war games that have started in Europe, Saber Strike-2014 and BALTOPS-2014,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a press service.

The ministry noted that the military might engaged in training in the Kaliningrad Region is by all means comparable with the NATO’s forces concentrated on the nearby territory of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where Saber Strike-2014 is conducted on June 9-20 and sea-based BALTOPS-2014 training held in the Baltic on June 6-21.

The Russian maneuvers involve the use of naval groups, marines, landing operations of airborne forces, air defense training and firing exercise of front-line aviation.

“All-arms naval groups will maintain border and sea communication defense, and will perform training to search and destroy hypothetical aggressor’s submarines and combat ships,” the ministry commented to RBC news outlet.

The Western military alliance on Monday launched one of its largest military maneuvers in the ex-Soviet Baltic States since the Ukraine crisis started.
Around 4,700 troops and 800 military vehicles from 10 countries including Britain, Canada and the United States are participating in the Sabre Strike exercises near the Latvian capital Riga.