According to the press service of the Central Military District (CVO), joint exercises with the participation of 2.5 thousand servicemen from Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan started at the Kharb-Maydon training ground 20 km from the border with Afghanistan, TASS writes.

“In the modern world, military threats are increasing; the situation is becoming more tense and unpredictable. At the joint exercises, we intend to test the accumulated combat experience, test the optimal forms of using troops and develop common approaches to conducting military operations,” said Lieutenant General Yevgeny Poplavsky, Deputy Commander of the Central Military District.

The Armed Forces of Tajikistan were presented by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the country, Major General Abdukhoshim Gulomzoda. The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel Farrukh Ziyabayev, delivered a welcoming speech from Uzbekistan.

Earlier, during the meeting of the SCO defense ministers in Dushanbe, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, said that the countries will work out practical actions to destroy gangs, conduct aerial reconnaissance and protect objects.

The maneuvers will last until August 10. During the main stage of the exercises, new targets will be used, imitating tanks, drones made by artisanal method, armored vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, jihad mobiles, life-size figures of suicide bombers, as well as long-term deepened structures in the mountains.

For assault and army aviation, use area targets – a militant camp, caches, armored columns on the March, and clusters of manpower and equipment of a conditional enemy. In total, about 1 thousand targets have been installed.