Putin attends joint military drills with China

Russian President Vladimir Putin watches the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) military exercise in far eastern Russia (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo/AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday attended sweeping war games in his country’s far east involving troops from China and other nations, in a show of military muscle amid the tensions with the West over Moscow’s action in Ukraine.

The week-long exercise that began on Thursday is intended to showcase growing defence ties between Russia and China and also demonstrate that Moscow has enough troops and equipment to conduct the massive drills even while its forces are fighting in Ukraine.