Earlier Ukrainian Chief of General Staff Viktor Muzhenko announced a series of strategic command post exercises called Indestructible Resilience. The country intends to hold as these an apparent response to the Zapad-2017 joint military exercise scheduled to be held by Russia and Belarus later in September.
Indestructible Resilience 2017 will be held in Ukraine from September 12 until September 15. The goal of the exercise is to test and improve command and control mechanisms during "regrouping and conducting defensive and stabilizing military actions," according to RT.
Russian military analyst Dmitry Litovkin told RT that command post exercises typically consist of two phases: battle readiness test for headquarters staff and field exercise involving rapid deployment of military forces in designated areas.
According to Litovkin, the field part of the Indestructible Resilience would be held merely for demonstration, limited to nominal deployment of a few military detachments at most. He pointed out that since 2014 the Ukrainian military haven’t conducted any large-scale exercises, which hints at low combat readiness and capabilities of Ukraine’s armed forces.
"Truth be told, joint drills held by Ukrainian and NATO forces look rather amusing because the manpower and hardware involved simply do not match the magnitude of a threat they so afraid of. It is clear that Indestructible Resilience does not pose any threat to Russia and to Zapad-2017," Litovkin explained.
Meanwhile Frants Klintsevich, the first deputy chairman of Russia's Upper House Committee on Defense and Security, said that Ukraine, in a manner of speaking, attempts to mimic Russia by hosting its own drills in response to Zapad-2017.
"Let Ukraine do its parroting. We do not consider these actions a threat to Russia. You can’t do whatever you want on your territory, but please refrain from killing people," Klintsevich remarked.
