OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko inspected the final stage of the Zapad-2013 Russian-Belarusian strategic military exercises.

The Zapad-2013 exercises took place simultaneously in Russia and Belarus. Joint operations at five test grounds, three in Belarus and two in Russia, were designed to test military coordination between various units in different conditions.

Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko visited the Gozhsky test ground in Belarus where, according to the exercise scenario, their forces simulated joint resistance to an armed group attempting to enter the Union State’s territory by land. Later on the two state leaders travelled to Khmelyovka test ground in Kaliningrad Region, where Russian and Belarusian forces conducted a training operation to counter a terrorist attack from the sea.

Following the exercises, Vladimir Putin held a videoconference on the preliminary results of the Zapad-2013 joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises. The President praised the exercises and called them a further step towards ensuring the operational compatibility of the Union State’s armed forces.