Russian, Belarusian defense ministers grade bilateral military drill as "excellent"
BORISOVSKY training site, Belarus. Aug 25 (Interfax) - Russian Defense Minister Gen. of the Army Sergei Shoigu and his Belarusian counterpart Andrei Ravkov highly graded the capabilities of participants in military maneuvers during a joint logistics exercise of the two countries' armed forces, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov said.
The joint exercise of Russian and Belarusian technical-support and rear-services units ended on Friday afternoon, the deputy minister said.
"We are satisfied with the outcomes of the exercise, a day earlier the Russian defense minister graded the troops' capabilities as excellent, today the Belarusian defense minister, too, gave the good grade to the exercise participants," Bulgakov told journalists on Friday.
The ministers praised their armies' excellent readiness for the joint strategic command post exercise Zapad-2017 (West 2017), he said.
"One conclusion can be made: this stage of the exercise showed once again all forces and equipment of the Belarusian and Russian armed forces in full cohesion for the completion of assignments, their personnel training corresponds to the level and requirements set for the armed forces by the leadership of both states," Bulgakov said.
The exercises taking place in 2017 have "a vast reach" in depth and in breadth, covering all armed services and military logistics units, i.e. the naval, land and air forces segments, the Russian deputy defense minister said.
