Russian marines hold exercises in Kaliningrad

The servicemen of the artillery unit fired at the airborne detachment of a mock enemy from Nona self-propelled artillery mounts," the fleet said. The unit also practised offensive manoeuvres, supported by armoured personnel carriers and artillery.

Around 500 Russian marines have held scheduled exercises in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, practising repelling a paratrooper landing, Russia's Baltic Fleet said on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency. "The Marine Corps units carried out actions in anti-paratrooper defence. The servicemen of the artillery unit fired at the airborne detachment of a mock enemy from Nona self-propelled artillery mounts," the fleet said.

The unit also practised offensive manoeuvres, supported by armoured personnel carriers and artillery. The Interfax report made no mention of the Russian armed incursion into Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24 and has raised tensions around the region, not least in NATO-members Poland and Lithuania, which separate Kaliningrad from Russia's close ally Belarus.