Russia and seven of its allies, including China and India, will send 128,000 soldiers to train in mass anti-terrorism drills next month, the country’s Defense Ministry has announced. The upcoming maneuvers will take place a year after Russia and China staged 300,000-strong anti-missile exercises near the Chinese border. Those exercises, which were Russia's largest war games since the Cold War, took place amid heightened tension between the West and Moscow over NATO’s expansion in eastern Europe.

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that 20,000 pieces of equipment, 600 aircraft and up to 15 warships will be rolled out across eight Russian training grounds for the Tsentr-2019 (Center-2019) exercises in September. The exercises will take place in two phases, the RBC news website cited the Russian military as saying Tuesday. The first stage will involve drills for combatting terrorism, repelling airstrikes and conducting reconnaissance. The second phase of exercises will focus on managing troops during fire strikes and attacking simulated enemies.