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Shoigu hails Russian troops as ‘army of constant readiness’

Russian Defense Minister noted that the Ministry’s firing ranges have been used for training servicemen at their 80% capacity

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. Russian forces today have become "an army of constant readiness," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in his interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets published on Sunday.

"At the price of incredible efforts by the country's leadership and the Defense Ministry’s top brass, we have made our army become what it is today - an army of constant readiness. Now all our units are the units of constant readiness," the minister stressed.

Shoigu noted that the Defense Ministry’s firing ranges have been used for training servicemen at their 80% capacity, while the number of rounds fired at the drills has quintupled since 2012.

According to the defense minister, one of major methods of increasing the Russian army’s combat power are snap checks, which create new training conditions for the military. Earlier, firing exercises were conducted at familiar ranges with using well-known equipment. During the first snap checks, no Russian units managed to fulfill their tasks well, Shoigu said.

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