SUKHUMI. Feb 4 (Interfax-AVN) - Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia Vyacheslav Eshba regarded reservists' training as excellent on Friday, Lieutenant General Anatoly Zaitsev, deputy defense minister, told Interfax-Military News Agency by phone from Sukhumi.
The minister was speaking while summing up results of the three-day exercise in the Ochamchira district, where "mobilization of reservists and establishment of their combat teamwork with regular army units was practiced," Zaitsev said.
"A tank battalion was alarmed to conduct live firing and a march about 100 km long," he noted.
A training session of commanders will take place in Abkhazia on February 14 in accordance with the combat training plan, the deputy minister went on. "After February 20, an exercise similar to the one held in the Ochamchira district will take place in the Tkvarcheli district. A military commissioner's office will be alarmed and elements of combat teamwork will be practiced," he said.
According to open sources, the Abkhaz Armed Forces number about 5,000 people, while about 18,000 are in the reserve.