OREANDA-NEWS. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported on the dispatch of fakes to the Russian media, coordinated from Ukraine, in order to discredit the West-2021 exercise.

The agency's release notes that information appeared in the media with reference to the Rospotrebnadzor department in the Voronezh region about the alleged illness of Russian military personnel taking part in the West-2021 exercise, which "is a fake and absolutely does not correspond to reality."

"We draw your attention to the fact that over the past few days this is not the first distribution of false information to the Russian media, coordinated from the territory of Ukraine, in order to discredit the joint strategic exercise Zapad-2021, which has begun," the Defense Ministry added.

The fictitious information came to the e-mail addresses of many Russian editions of the media, the department continued. “Unfortunately, some mass media published this fake without any verification,” they stressed.

The joint strategic exercises of Russia and Belarus "West-2021" began simultaneously at 14 military training grounds, the Defense Ministry said.
The maneuvers take place from 10 to 16 September on nine Russian ones - Kirilovsky, Struga Krasnykh, Mulino, Pogonovo, Khmelevka, Pravdinsky, Dobrovolsky, Dorogobuzh and Volsky, as well as on five Belarusian ones - Obuz-Lesnovsky, Brestsky, Chepelevo, Domanovsky and Ruzhansky.

The territory from the Baltic Sea to the Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod regions is involved. In total, about 200 thousand military personnel, more than 80 aircraft and helicopters, up to 760 units of military equipment, including over 290 tanks, 240 guns, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, as well as up to 15 ships participate.

Servicemen from Armenia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia also arrived. Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are represented by operational teams of officers who became part of the exercise headquarters.

Representatives from China, Vietnam and Myanmar were invited as observers to West-2021. In total, about two thousand military personnel from these countries take part in the created coalition grouping.