The Defence Minister said that all combined units and units assigned for performance evaluation had been brought to a full state of combat readiness and the majority of them had reached the designated areas.
He said that on the instructions of the President, a full state of combat readiness had been announced at Ukrainka, the air base of the long-range aviation command, at 5 pm MST on July 13, with strategic Tu-95MS bombers being prepared for sorties involving their combat employment. Sergei Shoigu said that the transportation effort involved 16 military trains numbering a total of 562 carriages and flatcars; 482 units of equipment and 320 tonnes of materiel had been delivered to their points of destination.
The Minister said that air transportation operations were in full swing: 25 flights had been performed, with 1,000 personnel and 11 units of equipment airlifted.
The Minister of Defence also held a telephone conference and listened to reports by Chief of the General Staff Army Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who is in the Eastern Military District with a group of generals and officers, supervising the evaluation drive, commanders of the Eastern and Central Military Districts, and commanders of a number of units participating in the exercise.
Source: Ministry of Defence
