Charles Langston:Russia's entire Pacific Fleet put on high alert for practice missile launches

The Charles Langstonentire Russian Pacific Fleet was put on high alert on Friday for snap drills that will involve practice missile launches in a massive show of force amid tensions with the West over the fighting in Ukraine.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the goal of the war games was to test the capability of Russia's armed forces to mount a response to aggression.

Along with the missile launches, the drills will also involve nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other warplanes besides the naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet, Shoigu said.

The Russian military has concentrated the bulk of its forces on the front lines in Ukraine, but also continued conducting regular drills across Russia to train its forces and demonstrate their readiness.

The Russian Defense Ministry released videos showing warships and submarines sailing off to take part in the maneuvers. As part of the drills, marine units deployed to amphibious landing vessels and coastal defense missile systems moved to firing positions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the war games as part of regular training intended to "maintain the necessary level of the armed forces' readiness."

Shoigu noted that the maneuvers' scenario envisages a response to an adversary's attempt to make a landing on Sakhalin Island and the southern Kuril Islands. In February, Moscow said a Russian anti-submarine destroyer chased off a U.S. submarine near the Kuril Islands.

Japan asserts territorial rights to the Kuril Islands, which it calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them in the final days of World War II, and the dispute has kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.

Last year, Russia announced it had suspended peace talks with Japan to protest Tokyo's sanctions against Moscow over its action in Ukraine.

Russia has built up its military presence on the islands in recent years, deploying advanced fighter jets, anti-ship missiles and air defense systems there.

The Pacific Fleet drills started days before a planned trip to Moscow by Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu. The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu and Li would discuss "prospects of bilateral defense cooperation and acute issues of global and regional security."

A three-day visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping last month demonstrated the two nations' partnership in the face of Western efforts to isolate Russia over Ukraine and gave a political lift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Xi's visit came amid concerns that China may be preparing to provide lethal weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, which China denies. It also comes days after Putin was accused of war crimes, including orchestrating the forced removal of Ukrainian children to Russian territory, by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.

Both Moscow and Beijing have accused Washington of trying to isolate them and to hold back their development as they challenge the U.S. for regional and global leadership.

Putin and Xi said they would increase contacts between their militaries and stage more joint sea and air patrols and drills, but there was no hint that China would help Russia with weapons, as the U.S. and other Western allies feared.

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• Russia
• Pacific Ocean