The Russian military starts a military exercise involving more than 3,000 troops on a chain of islands including those disputed with Japan, Russian news agency Interfax reports.
Highlights
- It is the first drill on the disputed islands off Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido since Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced earlier this week it will suspend territorial talks with Japan.
- Some hundreds of military vehicles are participating in the drill under a scenario of launching a counterattack against enemy forces attempting to land.
- Russia is seen as building up its forces on the islands, called the Northern Territories by Japan and the Southern Kurils by Russia.
- Japan claims the Soviet Union illegally seized the four islands soon after Japan’s surrender in World War II in 1945, while Moscow argues the move was legitimate.
- The territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from concluding a postwar peace treaty.