Russia performed tactical military manoeuvres in the occupied separatist South Ossetia as part of a three-week training in the Southern Military District (SMD).

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, troops in one training exercise targeted "saboteurs" who attempted to capture a hospital in Tskhinvali, the region's main town.

In another exercise, troops used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) called Granat-1 to conduct reconnaissance of a fictitious enemy's equipment and defences before destroying them with 122mm Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers and Grad multiple rocket launchers.

The military drills came as SMD spokesman Vadim Astafyev informed Russian media that the district has initiated more than 30 tactical drills.

Russia will conduct drills in Abkhazia, Georgia's second occupied area, as well as Volgograd Oblast, Stavropol Krai, Adygea, Chechnya, Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, and Ingushetia.

Each drill will involve roughly 400 troops and around 80 pieces of military and special equipment spread across 15 training areas in the Southern Military District, according to the news agency.

NATO must publicly reject its 2008 guarantee that Georgia and Ukraine would someday join the alliance, according to the Kremlin.

Tbilisi has stressed its alarm over Russian-led drills and military presence in the occupied Tskhinvali Region, as well as in Abkhazia, on several occasions.