Russian Pacific Fleet on high alert, conducting snap combat drills

The Russian military has put its Pacific naval fleet on high alert as part of surprise combat drills aimed at building the country’s defensive capabilities amid heightened tensions in the Asia-Pacific region and wrangling with the West over Ukraine.

"The main goal of this exercise is to build up the armed forces' ability to solve the tasks of repelling the aggression of a potential enemy from the direction of ocean and sea," Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.

The aim of the snap inspection drills was "to evaluate the state and increase the readiness of military command, troops and forces to undertake missions in all strategic directions," Shoigu added.

The Russian defense minister stressed that the Pacific Fleet would simulate an enemy landing on Russia's Sakhalin island and on its southern Kuril Islands, some of which are claimed by Japan in a territorial dispute dating back to the end of World War Two.

"In practice, it is needed to work out an action plan to prevent the deployment of enemy forces in the operationally-important area of the Pacific Ocean - the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk - and to repulse it landing on the southern Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island," he said.

According to Shoigu, the Pacific Fleet, headquartered in the port of Vladivostok, "has been put on alert and has begun a full deployment to the highest level of readiness" under Russian President Vladimir Putin's orders.

Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov also confirmed that Russia's naval forces were put on high alert during the drills and deployed to training areas, where they would conduct combat exercises.

Asked about the exercises, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down any connection with regional tensions, calling the exercises "routine" and saying that they were aimed at bolstering Russia's armed forces.

"This is a common practice, it has been constantly carried out in recent years and it continues. This is about maintaining the necessary level of combat readiness of our armed forces," Peskov told a daily news briefing.

The drills come amid heightened tensions in the Asia-Pacific region as the United States and South Korea conduct joint air exercises following an intercontinental ballistic missile test by North Korea and amid concerns over NATO's growing presence in the strategic region.

In the same area late last month, Russia's navy fired supersonic anti-ship missiles at a mock target in the Sea of Japan. Russia also flew two strategic bomber planes over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours earlier in March following Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s planned visit to Ukraine to show solidarity with Kiev in its war against Moscow.

In February, Kishida joined other Group of Seven (G7) leaders to announce additional sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine at an online G7 summit to mark the one-year anniversary of the war.

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