During the exercises, the launches were conditional, not a single rocket rose into the air. The purpose of the training is to practice repelling an air attack by a simulated enemy on the border with Russia near the Crimea
Anti-aircraft missile system ” Buk ”
The Ukrainian army held tactical exercises of air defense units on the border with Russia near the Crimea, the Ministry of Defense of the country reports.
“As part of the tactical exercises of air defense units performing tasks on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, combat crews of anti-aircraft missile systems” Buk “were trained to repel an air strike of a conditional enemy,” the department reported.
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According to the commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Sergei Naev, the anti-aircraft missile systems ” Buk “made a” long march of many kilometers on equipment to the positional area”.
“Already on the spot, the military personnel deployed the complexes in unequipped positions. In particular, the calculations worked out the search, identification, capture and tracking of air targets, ” he explained.
He noted that the military coped with the task well and as a result of conditional launches “destroyed the targets of the conditional enemy even before they entered the area of responsibility”.
Earlier, the adviser to the Ukrainian delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbass, Alexey Arestovich, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are able to retake the Donbass even in the event of a reaction from Russia. “We will be able to retake the Donbass, even if the Russian Federation reacts and leads its troops,” Arestovich said on July 7. He suggested that in the event of an open conflict, the Ukrainian army would surround major cities, cut supply routes and take the eastern border of the DPR and LPR under artillery fire.
The situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border worsened in the spring of 2021 after increased shelling on the contact line in the Donbass. Ukraine accused Russia of creating a large military group on the border with Ukraine, Western countries called on Moscow to withdraw troops from the border. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called the transfer of Russian troops “a game of muscles”. The Kremlin responded that Russia legally conducts exercises and moves troops on its territory at its own discretion.
On April 22, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu instructed to return to the places of permanent deployment of the troops that were involved in the exercises in the south of Russia. He clarified then that “the goals of the sudden check have been fully achieved”. Shoigu added that the Russian Armed Forces ” adequately respond to all changes in the situation near the Russian borders.”
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