President Zelenskiy Review Military Exercises, Deputy Minister Of Defense Of Ukraine: We Are Ready To Defend The Country

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy. (Wikimedia Commons / National Guard of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military observers from NATO member countries, including Britain and Poland, inspected the military exercises of the Ukrainian armed forces in the west of the country on Wednesday.

The tank fired the bullets and sped across the bumpy terrain. Meanwhile, army personnel train with Javelin anti-tank missiles near the city of Rivne.

The exercise, part of an exercise titled 'Zamethyl 2022' (Blizzard 2022), comes as Ukraine prepares for a possible military attack from Russia, which has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border.

Colonel Andriy Melnik, one of the commanders at the Rivne training ground, said troops trained with a variety of weapons.

"We are using the entire spectrum of weaponry available to ground forces commanders, artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, anti-tank rockets, weapons," he said.

Meanwhile, Hanna Malya, Ukraine's deputy defense minister said the exercise proved the readiness of the Ukrainian armed forces.

"We are fully prepared to defend our country and we will defend it," he said after reviewing the exercise.

To note, the United States and NATO said Russia was still building troops around Ukraine on Wednesday, although Moscow insisted it would withdraw, questioning President Vladimir Putin's desire to negotiate a solution to the crisis.

Meanwhile, Russia has repeatedly denied that it will invade Ukraine, citing the deployment of troops on its own territory, and announcing a gradual withdrawal of its troops starting yesterday, following military exercises.