15.08.2019.

Minister Vulin: Our soldiers have shown exceptional competence and knowledge

Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, at the invitation of his Belarusian counterpart, Lieutenant General Andrei Ravkov, attended the closing ceremony and awards ceremony in the disciplines of Sniper Frontier and Polar Star in the International Army Games in Belarus. The ceremony was also attended by the Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović.

The last stage of the Sniper Frontier competition is an individual one. It featured competition of sniper pairs from different countries. Private 1st class Ivan Obrenović, a member of the Special Brigade of the Serbian Armed Forces, won first place in a mixed-pair competition with a colleague from the Uzbekistani Armed Forces. The medals to the best-placed teams in this category were awarded by minister of defence Aleksandar Vulin..

- 21 teams from 21 countries took part. The pairs are determined by draft. The finals were reached through the system of elimination. We shot a sniper rifle with a Dragun calibre 7.42x54R. So far I have not had the opportunity to shoot that rifle, this was the first time. The target is a circle of 30cm diameter and we were shooting at a distance of 300 meters. The one who hits the target first wins. The contest is tough, competition is serious. These are all members of the special units of other countries - private 1st class Ivan Obrenović said.

Minister Vulin stated that “the policy of President Aleksandar Vučić, the policy of military neutrality, has enabled us to cooperate with all armies both in the East and in the West, and that thanks to such a policy we have been welcomed in Belarus as the closest country, as a country that is loved and respected.

Congratulating our team on the success in the competition, Minister Vulin said that members of our special units in Belarus showed “exceptional competence and exceptional knowledge”.

- I am pleased to say that we have won the brightest medal. The Serbian army will continue to equip itself, train, continue to respect the policies of the state leadership and President Vučić on military neutrality, and because of that, it will be respected and appreciated wherever it is - the Serbian Defence Minister said.

The Sniper Frontier competition, in which the Serbian Armed Forces team is participating for the second time, consists of four stages. The first three stages are group games, where all team members are shooting. They fired from Makarov's gun, AK-74 rifle, and a school bomb was thrown. Sniper shooting is performed at distances of 150 to 800 meters. The Serbian Armed Forces team consisted of nine members, where six of them were rifleman. We remind you that last year in the Mixed Sniper Pairs competition, Lieutenant Đorđe Lapčević won first place in the competition of 18 mixed sniper pairs.

The Sniper Frontier, a competition organised at the Belarus Airborne Force training ground in Brest, is one of 32 military disciplines at this year's International Army Games. The military games are being held simultaneously in 21 training ranges in 10 countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, from 3rd to 17th August. The number of participants exceeds 5,000, comprising 223 teams coming from 39 countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America.