At a meeting of the country’s Defense Ministry College, the military chief noted that the new formations will be ready by the end of the year, taking into account that tensions in the west of the country are on the rise; especially because of the possible accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

He explained that, as planned, Moscow will synchronize these countermeasures with the supply of more than 2,000 modern weapons and military equipment to those troops this year, TASS news agency reported.

Shoigou said that inspections based on the results of the winter training period showed a qualitative increase in the level of training of the Western Military District formations by 25% over the previous year.

He added that the intensity of training tasks of the Baltic Sea Fleet ships increased by 42% and noted that more than 300 combat exercises with the use of various types of weapons have been conducted so far this year.

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