Putin Brings Chinese And Indian Armies For Military Drills: White House Says 'Concerns...While Russia Is Waging This Unprovoked War'

Moscow is holding a major military exercise in the far east, involving Beijing and New Delhi, as Russia pushes back against the West’s attempts to isolate the Vladimir Putin-led company over his invasion of Ukraine.

What Happened: More than 50,000 army men and 5,000 military equipment — from Russia, China and India — including over 140 aircraft and 60 warships, will be participating in the week-long Vostok-2022 war games starting Thursday, Russian Defense Ministry announced. The military exercise will also include naval drills in the Sea of Japan.

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The exercises bring together member states and partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization of former Soviet republics.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has raised concerns "over any country" conducting exercises with Russia, which has waged an "unprovoked and brutal" war against Ukraine.

The White House Press Secretary Karen Jean-Pierre, while responding to a question about why "not put any pressure on India" — which is also sending its troops for the exercise — said "We have concerns over any country exercising with Russia while Russia is waging this unprovoked war."

"But, of course, every participating country will make its own decisions. And I’ll leave it at that," she added.

India’s Narendra Modi-led government has sent a small 75-strong military detachment to the army drills. This includes the army, navy and air force representatives, though the country isn’t sending any naval or air assets to Russia.

Last week — for the first time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine — India voted against Russia during a “procedural vote” at the United Nations Security Council on Ukraine. The 15-member powerful U.N. body invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address a meeting through a video conference.

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