Russian defense minister inspects troops in Ukraine

Russia's Defense Minister Andrey Belousov visited Ukrainian battle zone on Friday and inspected the progress in carrying out combat missions by units and military formations of the Russian "Dnepr" army grouping.

At the command post of the army, Belousov listened to reports from Col. Gen. Mikhail Teplinsky, unit commanders, and staff officers regarding the execution of tasks within their area of responsibility, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

He also held a meeting on equipping groupings' subunits with modern weapons and military equipment, and the commander informed him about the testing process for batches of assault rifles and light machine guns developed by Kalashnikov Concern based on recommendations from servicemen.

After the meeting, Belousov asked the ministry to work closely with Kalashnikov Concern, Russia's top small arms manufacturer, to explore possibilities of increasing deliveries to airborne and storming units across all troops groupings.