The Russian Defense Ministry reported yesterday that units from the Eastern Military District have begun arriving in Belarus for the joint exercises that kick off on Feb. 2. “The units of the Eastern Military District involved in the check of the reaction forces of the Union State, with standard equipment and weapons, marched in a combined way (on their own and by rail) to unfamiliar training grounds to places of training tasks on the territory of the Republic of Belarus,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Southern Military District, meanwhile, announced today that combat teams from missile regiments equipped with Iskander missiles have begun live-fire training exercises at the Kapustin Yar training range in the Astrakhan region. Tass reports that the missile formation has advanced there from the Krasnodar region and will practice at least ten combat training tasks to overcome notionally contaminated terrain, deploy missile launchers, and deliver strikes against mock enemy targets in drills that will last about a month. Kapustin Yar is about 425-450 km east of the border with Ukraine.
