Military Threats Growing Near Russia's Western Borders - Shoigu

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2022) The situation in the western strategic direction is characterized by an increase in military threats near the Russian borders, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

"The situation in the western strategic direction is characterized by an increase in military threats near Russian borders. Over the past eight years, the intensity of US strategic bomber flights in Europe has increased 15-fold (to 45 per year from just three). The visits to the Baltic Sea by US ships with controlled rocket weapons also became systematical," Shoigu said at a meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry.

This year alone, near the Kaliningrad region, US ships with guided weapons "performed tasks six times with access to the proposed cruise missile launch areas, 24 such events have been detected by the objective control system since 2016," the minister specified.

He added that at the same time the United States and NATO were increasing the scale of operational and combat training near the borders of Russia.

"Currently, a series of exercises 'Defender of Europe' with the participation of up to 40,000 military personnel from 30 countries of the bloc is being carried out. The main feature of the maneuvers is the transfer of a full-fledged division from the United States to the European continent, as well as the deployment of a group of troops in three strategic directions: the Arctic, western and southwestern," Shoigu said.

He recalled that our closest neighbors � Finland and Sweden � had applied for NATO membership.

"Thus, tension continues to grow in the zone of responsibility of the Western Military District," the minister concluded.