Russia announces unexpected combat readiness check of Pacific Fleet

Armed forces to train for preventing enemies from entering Sakhalin island, landing on southern part of Kuril Islands

by Elena Teslova

MOSCOW

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu announced on Friday an unexpected combat readiness check of the Russian Pacific Fleet with the participation of the Aerospace Forces.

Speaking at a meeting with military chiefs in Moscow, Shoygu named training skills of the armed forces to repel the aggression of a potential enemy from ocean and sea directions as the main goal of the inspection.

He also said as part of the exercises, the navy will have to prevent the conditional enemy from entering the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk and repel the landing on the Sakhalin island and the southern part of the Kuril Islands.

For his part, Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff, said the combat readiness check will be carried out in three stages.

In the first stage, the Pacific Fleet will carry out measures to bring full combat readiness, the second suggests deployment of permanent readiness forces from bases to combat training areas, at the third stage will see the armed forces work out combat training tasks.