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Military drills

Zapad exercise showed troops' ability to maintain regional security — Shoigu

A total of 200,000 troops, including 2,000 from the CSTO and SCO member states and other countries were involved

MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. The Russian-Belarusian strategic exercise Zapad-2021 has demonstrated the ability of a bilateral force to effectively maintain regional security, Shoigu said while summing up the results of the exercise on Wednesday.

"The joint strategic exercise Zapad-2021 demonstrated the personnel's better skills and the ability of combined bilateral forces to effectively cope with tasks to maintain regional security. I believe that the goals of the exercise were achieved and training conducted to the full extent," Shoigu said.

A total of 200,000 troops, including 2,000 from the CSTO and SCO member states and other countries were involved.

Shoigu stressed that the total number of participants did not contradict the Vienna document.

The joint strategic exercise Zapad-2021 was held on September 10-16. Shoigu said it was the final stage of joint combat training by the Belarusian and Russian armed forces and the main training event this year.

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Sergey Shoigu Military drills Russian Defense Ministry

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