MOSCOW, May 3 (AVN) - Rotation of airborne operative group units in the North Caucasus has been successfully completed, Airborne Commander Georgy Shpak told the Military News Agency on Thursday.
The rotation was carried out from January to the end of April in accordance with a directive of Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin. Personnel of three regiment-size task forces set up on the basis of the 106th, 76th and 7th airborne divisions, as well as a detachment of the 45th separate airborne reconnaissance regiment was replaced. During the same period the battalion-size task force of the 31st separate airborne brigade was fully withdrawn from Chechnya to Ulyanovsk in the framework of the federal troops group reduction, said Shpak who got down to his duties after vacation on Thursday.
According to him, the change of the units was carried out orderly and on time fixed by the chief-of-staff's directive. On a whole 19 trains with 6,000 servicemen went to the North Caucasus (Khankala, Khasavyurt) and back to the units' places of permanent stationing (Tula, Stavropol, Novorossiysk, Pskov and Ulyanovsk). Speaking about further participation of paratroopers in special operations against guerrillas Georgy Shpak said that airborne task forces as well as the 45th separate reconnaissance regiment are still fully involved in combat, scouting and search operations. "Until Chechen warlords are eliminated, the airborne operative group units are likely to stay in Chechnya," said Shpak.