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Over 3,500 Baltic Fleet troops, 40 ships kick off drills in Russia’s westernmost region

It is noted that the Baltic Fleet’s naval tactical groups have departed from their bases and deployed to the designated areas in the Baltic Sea for accomplishing assigned combat training missions

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. Over 3,500 troops and up to 40 combat ships are involved in the Baltic Fleet’s operational drills that kicked off in Russia’s westernmost exclave of the Kaliningrad Region, the Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

"In accordance with the Baltic Fleet’s 2023 training plan for military command centers, an operational exercise with the Fleet’s groupings commanded by Baltic Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Vladimir Vorobyov has begun on June 5 in the Baltic Sea and at combat training ranges in the Kaliningrad Region and will last through June 15," the ministry reported.

The exercise has brought together up to 40 surface ships, boats and support vessels, including guard ships and corvettes, small missile ships and missile boats. In addition, the maneuvers involve over 3,500 troops, up to 25 aircraft and helicopters and 500 items of combat and special hardware, the ministry specified.

The Baltic Fleet’s naval tactical groups have departed from their bases and deployed to the designated areas in the Baltic Sea for accomplishing assigned combat training missions, it said.

The exercise aims to raise the preparedness of the Baltic Fleet’s military command centers, improve interoperability, the sea skills of naval sailors and the field skills of the Fleet’s coastal defense troops and practice troop command and control, the ministry specified.

The naval maneuvers aim to practice protecting and defending sea lanes and the Fleet’s naval bases, it said.

Before the drills, the Baltic Fleet carried out a set of special exercises covering all types of logistical support and practiced putting its troops and forces on heightened alert.

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