MOSCOW. Sept 9 (Interfax) - The Zapad-2021 joint strategic exercise, which has begun on Thursday, has a defensive nature, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"The opening ceremony of the Zapad-2021 joint strategic exercise of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus has taken place at the Mulino range in the Nizhny Novgorod region," the ministry said.
Russian State Secretary - Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said that the Zapad-2021 exercise "has a strictly defensive nature and aims to teach the troops how to conduct modern warfare and to raise the operative compatibility of military commands of forces of the allies and comradely states."