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The five-day drills, which involve 38,000 servicemen, more than 50 ships and submarines and 110 aircraft, are intended to test the readiness of the northern fleet and the army’s ability to deploy additional forces from central Russia.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu insisted that “the new challenges and military threats” required further advances in the capabilities of the armed forces.
Mr Shoigu said that the military would verify its ability to beef up forces on the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos and protect state borders on land, air and sea.
Other tasks include airlifting special operations forces to distant locations and efforts to counter enemy diversions.
The military also launched drills elsewhere in Russia, including Sakhalin Island, the Kamchatka peninsula and other areas in the far east.
