“We conveyed our concerns to the Russian side regarding the activities of Russian troops near our country on the background of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The government continues to gather information and will act accordingly,” Hirokazu Matsuno, secretary-general of the Japanese government, said at a press conference in Tokyo.
Inviting the military from China and India to the exercises is a challenge that Russia posed to the United States. This was reported by Bloomberg citing a source at the Pentagon.
The Russian military leadership did not give up on the planned Vostok-2022 exercises and began them on schedule, thereby demonstrating that the special military operation in Ukraine continues as usual and combat training is on schedule.
More than 5,000 weapons and military equipment are involved in the exercises, including approximately 50,000 soldiers, 140 aircraft, 60 warships, boats and support ships.
“If the army does not fight, it learns to fight – this is an axiom,” retired Lieutenant General Anatoly Khrulev told socialbites.ca. – Military exercises at different levels have their own goals and objectives.
It trains platoon-company-battalion personnel with consistency in defensive and offensive operations, demonstration of enemy fire damage and tactical skills of commanders. There are also exercises for strategic purposes; What matters here is not the number of soldiers and the amount of equipment involved, but the scale of the missions carried out in a large military operation area.
Figuratively speaking, arrows are drawn on maps at the scale of not a company stronghold, but an entire military district or strategic direction.
As follows from the statements of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the main task of the exercises is “to develop the skills of the commanders and staff to lead special and coalition troops to repel aggression in the eastern direction and in the Far East sea zone.”
The exercises are also aimed at increasing the level of cohesion and interaction of coalition troops in solving the common tasks of maintaining peace, protecting interests and military security in the eastern region.
“The Vostok-2022 exercises show a reflection of the historical process of conflict between West and East, between which Russia as the middle world is assigned the geostrategic function, between which the geostrategic function is assigned,” said historian, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov. socialbites.ca. – The purpose of such exercises is not to scare anyone, but to show their allies that they are not isolated. Find joint cooperation options with different countries to prove that they are not satellites of a superpower, but partners who can ensure their own security and solve domestic problems peacefully.”
It is worth noting that, unlike the 2019 exercises, Vostok-2022 significantly expanded with the representation of the armies of foreign states. Participants include Algeria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria, Tajikistan. This is already a kind of coalition of forces that does not openly take the side of Russia, but, with its help in the exercises, shows a loyal position against Moscow.
It is known that China participated in the Vostok-2022 maneuvers with the help of 2,000 military personnel, 300 ground combat equipment, 21 aircraft and a helicopter, as well as three ships. Similar number of participants from India and Belarus.
“In the context of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, this is a clear indication that Putin does not see Ukraine as an application point of maximum military efforts. “The Kremlin shows the West that the special operation does not bother him,” military political analyst Alexander Zimovsky told socialbites.ca. – Simply put, it shows that Moscow is fighting against it in Ukraine, together with the West, without much effort.
Participating in the maneuvers of countries that are at different levels of tension with each other, such as India-China or Azerbaijan-Armenia, is above all an opportunity for them to show themselves and see people. And not through opinion, but through partnership.
Moscow thus unites the worst enemies.”
In general, the political scientist states that the Vostok-2022 maneuvers are a platform where each participant can show that they have foreign policy subjectivity. “This separates us from Washington, which is not its ally, but its vassals,” Zimovsky said.