According to CNN, Russia has kicked off its largest war games since the fall of the Soviet Union on Tuesday, ahead of a bilateral meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.

At least 300,000 troops, 36,000 vehicles and 1,000 aircraft will take part in the Vostok 2018 exercises, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

They'll be joined by thousands of troops from China and Mongolia, which the Chinese Defense Ministry insisted wasn't “directed against any third party” and would focus purely on “defences, firepower strikes and counterattack.”

The exercises will be held from September 11 to 17 in Russia's Eastern Military District, an underdeveloped and sparsely populated close to the country's borders with China and Mongolia.

In a statement in August, Gen. Sergi Shoigu, supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian armed forces, said the games would be at an “unprecedented scale both in territory and number of troops involved.”

The Ministry has previously characterized the exercises as the largest war games since the fall of the Soviet Union.

CNN said the exercises coincide with the Russian-sponsored Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on the Russian Pacific coast. Putin is scheduled to meet with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the event Tuesday, during which Russian state media TASS said “several agreements” would be signed.

Trade turnover between Russia and China increased 50 percent in the first half of 2018, with the total expected to reach USD 100 billion (around EUR 86.1) by the end of the year, according to TASS.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.86)