Over 70 Russian ships out in Baltic testing ‘combat readiness’: spokesman
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
30.08.2017 17:30
More than 70 Russian warships and support vessels with around 2,000 crewmen have hit the Baltic Sea for a “routine combat readiness check,” a spokesman for the country’s Baltic Fleet said on Wednesday.
Photo: yasioo/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons
"The check … is aimed at assessing the possibility to put the navy on full alert as well as [at assessing] the alert forces’ capability to implement their tasks," the spokesman, Roman Martov, said, as quoted by Russia’s TASS state news agency.
According to a report by Poland’s PAP news agency, vessels from Russia’s Baltic and Leningrad naval bases are taking part in the drills.
Observers note that the drills come ahead of large-scale Russian and Belarusian war games that are scheduled to take place near the Polish border in September. (str)
Source: PAP, TASS