Moscow. February 16. INTERFAX-AVN - Units of the tank Army of the Western Military District (ZVO) are returning to their permanent deployment points after the exercises, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Armored vehicles were loaded onto railway trains, which will have to travel about 1 thousand kilometers to the bases, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"The servicemen of the tank army units of the Western Military District have completed loading tanks and armored tracked vehicles onto railway platforms and have begun marching in a combined way to permanent deployment points at a distance of about 1,000 kilometers after the completion of planned exercises," the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The region in which the exercises were held is not specified in the message.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has published video footage of the movement of a tank column on a snowy terrain and the loading of armored vehicles on railway echelons.
On February 15, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that units of the Western and Southern Military Districts begin returning from exercises to their bases by rail and road. The Southern Military District reported that, in particular, the military and equipment are returning from exercises in the Crimea.
The North Atlantic Alliance does not yet see signs of de-escalation on the border of Russia and Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
NATO is experiencing problems with an adequate assessment of the situation on the border of Russia and Ukraine, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
According to official data, the troops of the First Tank Army of the Far East are stationed in the Moscow, Ivanovo, Smolensk and Nizhny Novgorod regions. The army headquarters is located in Bakovka (Moscow region). The army includes, in particular, the Taman Motorized Rifle and Kantemirovskaya tank divisions, the 6th Tank Brigade, the 27th Sevastopol Motorized Rifle Brigade, equipped with Iskander-M missile brigade in Shuya.
"Upon arrival at the permanent deployment points, the military equipment will be serviced and prepared for further planned combat training activities of the winter training period," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"As part of the exercise, our unit completed all the tasks set. We made a march to the loading area for departure to the point of permanent deployment. During the march, a section of a public road was crossed in cooperation with the road commandant service. The equipment was loaded in the normal mode. The echelon is ready to depart," the officer said in a video of the Russian Defense Ministry dedicated to the return of units of the tank Army of the Western Military District to permanent locations.
The United States, other NATO countries and Ukraine announced the concentration of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border and the threat of a Russian invasion.
Moscow stated that Russia has no aggressive plans against Ukraine.
On February 14, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Russian military is conducting a number of exercises, some of them have ended, others are close to completion.
