Reznikov told a local TV channel that Ukrainian soldiers are constantly conducting various exercises, and from February 10 they will start carrying out maneuvers using Bayraktar drones, Javelin and NLAW anti-aircraft missiles supplied by their foreign partners.
Western countries said they feared that Moscow was planning an invasion of Ukraine, as it massed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border and deployed more than 30,000 troops in Belarus for joint exercises.
Russia has denied such planning, saying it needs to strengthen its defenses as NATO expands eastward.
Russian naval exercises
And the Russian Interfax news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying, on Tuesday, that 6 Russian warships are heading to the Black Sea from the Mediterranean to participate in naval maneuvers, in what it described as a pre-planned move regarding military activities.
Russia announced last month that its navies would conduct a comprehensive set of exercises involving all of its fleets in January and February from the Pacific to the Atlantic, in the latest show of force in an escalation of military activity during a standoff with the West.
The arrival of the first American reinforcement forces
For his part, Romanian Defense Minister Vassily Danko said that the first US forces to reinforce NATO member states in Eastern Europe had arrived in Romania, in light of Russia’s build-up of its forces on the Ukrainian border.
The United States is shifting the locations of the Stryker squadron of about 1,000 American soldiers from Welsek, Germany, to Romania.
Danko told reporters that the first 100 of them arrived in the country, a member of NATO since 2004, to deal with logistical issues.
