Hundreds of thousands of Russian troops will take part in the country's largest ever military drills Tuesday, in a massive show of force featuring Chinese soldiers that has rattled the West.
The week-long deployment dubbed "Vostok-2018" (East-2018), which will kick off in eastern Siberia and includes the Chinese and Mongolian armies, has been condemned by NATO as a rehearsal for "large-scale conflict".
President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend Vostok-2018 after hosting an economic forum in Russia's far eastern city Vladivostok where his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is one of the prominent guests.
The military exercises come at a time of escalating tensions between Moscow and the West over accusations of Russian interference in western affairs and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. The Russian army has compared the show of force to the USSR's 1981 war games that saw between 100,000 and 150,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers take part in "Zapad-81" (West-81) -- the largest military exercises of the Soviet era.
Russia's previous military exercise in the region, Vostok-2014, was almost half the size, with 155,000 soldiers participating.
The country's war games in Eastern Europe last year, Zapad-2017, saw 12,700 troops take part according to Moscow. Ukraine and the Baltic states said the true number was far bigger.
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has ordered the Election Commission to immediately proceed with the postponed Local Government Elections.
Ratnapura District Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Thalatha Athukorala has informed Parliament that she decides to resign from her position as Member of Parliament.
United Petroleum (UP) was launched in Sri Lanka today and will commence retail fuel operations in September with 150 dealer owned and operated fuel stations.
The ‘Easter Attack April 2019 – Victim Fund has received a total sum of Rs.231. 8 million as of August 21, 2024 , of which Rs.100 million was paid as compensation by former President Maithripala Sirisena as directed by the Supreme Court, the Office for Reparations said.
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