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Russia's Eastern Military District said it was conducting
military drills on the Kuril islands with more than 3,000 troops
and hundreds of pieces of army equipment, Russia's Interfax news
agency said Friday.
It did not say where on the island chain, connecting Russia's
Kamchatka peninsula and Japan's northernmost main island of
Hokkaido, the drills were taking place. Japanese media said they
were on territory the Soviet Union seized at the end of World
War Two that is claimed by Tokyo.
Japan's Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister's Office could not
be reached outside business hours to comment on the exercises.
The territorial dispute over the four islets - which Russia says
are part of its Kuril chain and which Japan calls its Northern
Territories - has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from reaching a
peace treaty formally ending hostilities.
Japan reacted angrily on Tuesday after Russia withdrew from
long-running treaty talks and froze joint economic projects
related to the islands, in retaliation for Japan joining Western
sanctions over Moscow's month-old invasion.
Russia's exercises involved repelling amphibious warfare,
including destroying defence aircraft carrying troops and
testing skills to operate fire control systems of anti-tank
guided missiles, Interfax said.
"In addition to this, units of the Air Defense Forces are
carrying out a set of measures to detect, identify and destroy
aircraft of a mock enemy that would carry out an airborne
assault," the agency cited the District's press service as
saying.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Additional reporting by
Junko Fujita in Tokyo; Editing by William Mallard)
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