Russian naval vessels have conducted anti-submarine drills in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Pacific waterway between Russia and Hokkaido, as part of the country's largest military exercise in decades.
The "unprecedented" Vostok 2018 military drills — the largest war games since the fall of the Soviet Union — have seen about 3,200 troops from China join some 300,000 Russian troops for a week of war games in Siberia and the Far East, and over the Arctic and Pacific oceans. The maneuvers are scheduled to continue through Monday.
China, which participated for the first time, also sent more than 1,000 pieces of weaponry and 30 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to conduct strike and counterattack training among other drills, it said earlier, as Moscow and Beijing looked to showcase their deepening ties.