CSTO to hold drills in Russia Nov. 8-12

The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will hold the Indestructible Brotherhood 2021 drills of their peacekeeping forces on the territory of Russia on November 8-12, the press office of the exercise announced on Monday, TASS reported.

“On the training ground of the Kazan Order of Zhukov Red Banner Higher Tank Command School, the CSTO group of [collective] forces will practice the assignments of preparing and conducting a peacekeeping operation of the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces,” the press office said in a statement.

The Moscow-led bloc’s peacekeeping forces will focus on improving the skills of the CSTO Collective Forces’ command centers in organizing and exercising troop command and control. The exercise also aims to enhance the cohesion of units making part of the CSTO peacekeepers, the statement says.

In the course of their practical training, the peacekeeping forces will practice operations at a checkpoint, tasks in a refugee camp, humanitarian cargo convoys as well as measures to seal off a community and storm a building seized by terrorists, free hostages and render assistance to those injured.

The Indestructible Brotherhood exercise will bring together the military contingents of the security bloc’s member states, military police units, the CSTO Joint Staff and Secretariat operational groups, units of the Interior Ministries, National Guards and Emergencies Ministries.

Representatives of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, Serbia, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, and also of the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations have been invited to the final stage of the drills, the press office said.