Russian troops in breakaway South Ossetia launched military exercises with participation of more than 2,000 soldiers at Dzartsemi firing range in north of Tskhinvali, the Russian Defense Ministry said on January 13.

It said that about 500 units of military hardware and weapons systems, among them Т-72 BM tanks; BMP-2 and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles; Akatsia and Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers take part in the military exercises.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported in December, that throughout 2015 Russian troops, deployed in South Ossetia, received about 150 units of military hardware and various weapon systems, among them Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile system.

Iskander-M missile system, which was officially adopted by the Russian army in 2006, has a firing range of up to 500 kilometers.

Among other equipment and weapons delivered to South Ossetia in 2015 the Russian Defense Ministry also listed modernized main battle tanks, T-72B3, which entered service in 2011; BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers; Strela-10 short-range surface-to-air missile system; unmanned aerial vehicles Leer-3, as well as new electronic warfare complex Borisoglebsk-2, a ground vehicle designed to disrupt communications and GPS systems, which was adopted by the Russian army last year.