Russia begins tactical aviation exercises in Crimea
On April 4th, the tactical aviation of the Southern Military District in the Crimea and the Russian Volgograd region was raised on alert in the framework of flight and tactical exercises, said Colonel Vadim Astafyev, chief of the South Ossetia press service, as reported by RIA Novosti.
“In the Crimea and the Volgograd region, pilots of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Southern Military District were raised on alert in accordance with the training and combat alert in the framework of flight and tactical exercises. The crews of the Su-24M, Su-25M and Su-25SM tactical aircraft are training for the destruction of the fleet of aviation combat vehicles, facilities and bases of illegal conventional armed formations, as well as their large warehouses of fuel and lubricants and caches with weapons and ammunition,” explained Astafyev.
The crews will fly more than 120 combat training missions over a period of four days.
On the official website of the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the Southern Military District there is no information about these exercises.
On the night of March 29, training exercises for anti-aircraft gunners in the Russian Black Sea Fleet were conducted in the Crimea. On March 24, a large scale exercise involving three formations of the Russian Airborne Forces was conducted at Opuk, Crimea, under the command of Airborne Force Commander Colonel-General Andrey Serdyukov.
The General Staff of Ukraine called the Russian military exercises in the Crimea illegal.