Role of Airborne Troops in Russia’s Military Buildup in Crimea
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 18 Issue: 70
(Source: Vesti92.ru)
At the end of each winter training cycle, the Russian Armed Forces typically hold extensive readiness checks in the month of April. So unsurprisingly, on April 6, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the Russian military would carry out 4,048 such snap exercises at 101 ranges over the following few weeks (
Mil.ru, April 6). When it came to the elite Russian Airborne Troops (
Vozdushno-Desantnye Voyska VDV), 35,000 paratroopers would take part (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, April 6), with the most important exercises carried out in the Eastern Military District, at the Tsugol and Segeevsky ranges. Yet on April 13, in connection with his visit to the Northern Fleet, Shoigu mentioned that starting in late March, three armies and three VDV units had been redeployed to Russia’s western borders (
Anapa
Krasnodarskiy-kray
Russia
Kamyshin
Volgogradskaya-oblast
Tsugol
Zabaykal-skiy-kray
Opuk
Krym
Avtonomna-respublika
Ukraine
Novorossiysk