MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. A military contingent of Russia’s Eastern Military District has arrived in Mongolia to participate in the Selenga 2024 international drills, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"Military trains of the Eastern Military District have arrived in Mongolia to participate in the Selenga 2024 Russian-Mongolian military exercise. A welcome ceremony for Russian servicemen was held at the Bayantumen railway station near Choibalsan. Following the ancient custom, national dishes were offered to the guests who had arrived," the ministry said in a statement.

After the welcome ceremony, the Russian servicemen began unloading equipment from railway platforms and conducted a 30km march to the Choibalsan practice range where preparations for the drills and their active phase will take place, it said.

"Before the exercise, qualification measures were carried out for admission to the drills. At the concluding stage, a tactical live-fire exercise was conducted with units. The active phase of the drills will involve a live-fire stage with tactical operations to hunt down, block and destroy a notional outlawed armed formation," the ministry specified.

Selenga drills

Selenga Russian-Mongolian drills have been annually held since 2008. Before 2011, the maneuvers represented a tactical live-fire exercise dubbed Darkhan, which stands for ‘Builder’ in Mongolian. In 2011, the maneuvers were renamed into Selenga, which is the name of the river that originates on the territory of Mongolia, flows through the Republic of Buryatia in East Siberia and gets into Lake Baikal. Since then, the drills have focused on counter-terror activities.