28.10.2019.
Slavic Shield 2019 joint tactical exercise completed
Minister Vulin: We are bound by a firm commitment to defend our freedom
- Slavic Shield 2019 joint tactical exercise will become traditional and in the future we will practice together and learn how to protect the freedom of our sky. The name of our exercise “Slavic Shield” speaks about our closeness, speaks about common origin, speaks about common values. But more than our common origins, more than our common past, we are bound by a common future, we are bound by a firm commitment to defend our freedom – defence minister Aleksandar Vulin emphasised in the presence of the chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović, at a medal-awarding ceremony that concluded the Slavic Shield 2019 joint live-fire tactical exercise with the air defence missile units of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The Slavic peoples, minister Vulin added, do not know how to take from the others, because they were thought so and because they have chosen so.- That is how our ancestors did, so will we. Serbia, in the wars which it did not ask for, and which it was not responsible for, learned the cost of its freedom. That is why we prepare ourselves, exercise, equip ourselves, not to endanger anyone, but never to allow anyone to endanger our freedom. After acquiring new knowledge, skills, equipping and after the Slavic Shield 2019, Serbia is even more ready to remain free and to preserve peace in the Balkans – minister Vulin pointed out.
According to him, the more prepared and armed Serbia is, the more secure, certain and lasting peace in the Balkans is.
- I would like to thank president Vladimir Putin and president Aleksandar Vučić, because thanks to their agreement, thanks to their persistent and patient work, Serbia and Russia are closer and our countries are stronger and freer. Thanks to president Vučić's policy, the military neutrality policy, Serbia is not alone, it will never be alone again, as it was in 1999, when it was exposed to NATO aggression, at the darkest moment of our history, when we were completely alone. Thanks to the policy of military neutrality, we can arm ourselves, equip ourselves, we can choose for ourselves who our friends are, and our enemies choose themselves anyway, without our will and desire – minister Vulin said.
Slavic Shield 2019 exercise director, commander of the 250th Air Defence Missile Brigade, Brigadier General Tiosav Janković, pointed out that today, when the joint exercise ends, it can be concluded that all objectives have been fulfilled and the tasks accomplished.- The exercise, which could be only anticipated in May, today has clear forms and rich contents; it is recognisable and visible to all. Combined endeavour between us and our Russian colleagues is to be proud of and obliges us to enrich our cooperation in the forthcoming period with new exercises and new activities. Today, I wish to thank all those who participated in the planning, preparation and implementation of this exercise, who assisted in a visible or invisible manner. I wish my Russian colleagues a successful and safe return to their homeland, with a wish to see them in a similar activity as soon as possible – General Janković said.
Addressing the participants of the exercise, deputy commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Lieutenant General Yury Nikolayevich Grehov, emphasized that this was an important day for the members of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as the first joint air defence exercise on the territory of Serbia was successfully completed. He wished the participants and leadership good luck and health, and for members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation a safe return to their country.For exceptional results achieved at the Slavic Shield 2019 joint tactical exercise, the minister of defence of the Republic of Serbia awarded members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with Military Commemorative Medals for their outstanding contribution to the defence system of the Republic of Serbia, which he presented to the awarded ones at the ceremony today.
On the occasion of the successful completion of the exercise, commander of the Air Force and Air Defence, Major General Duško Žarković, awarded members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with scrolls of honour that were presented to them at today's ceremony.At a ceremony at the ‘Colonel-pilot Milenko Pavlović’ Air Base in Batajnica, decorations and scrolls of honour were presented today pursuant to the order of the minister of defence of the Russian Federation and commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for merits in the Slavic Brotherhood 2019 joint tactical exercise, which was presented to members of the Serbian Armed Forces by General Grehov.
