MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. The patrol ship Vasily Bykov has entered the Mediterranean Sea where it will hold drills as part of the Russian Squadron with the navies of some Southern Mediterranean countries, a source in the Crimean defense circles told TASS on Friday.

"On Monday, the Vasily Bykov sailed through the Black Sea straits and joined the Russian Navy’s permanent Mediterranean task force. One of the ship’s long-distance deployment missions is to take part in the drills with the ships of two Southern Mediterranean countries," the source specified.

The Vasily Bykov is the Project 22160 lead ship laid down at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard in the Volga area in 2014 and made operational in the Russian Navy in 2018 after its construction was completed at the Zaliv Shipyard in Kerch. The patrol ship was designed by the Severnoye Design Bureau (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation).

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet currently operates two Project 22160 ships, the Vasily Bykov and the Dmitry Rogachev.

In October, the patrol ship Vasily Bykov entered the Mediterranean Sea for several days. During its long-distance deployment, the patrol ship visited the Greek port of Pylos where the Russian sailors took part in the festivities devoted to the 192nd anniversary of the Naval Battle of Navarino. The united squadrons of Russia, Britain and France fought the Ottoman fleet in the Navarino Bay (now Pylos) on October 20, 1827. The allied forces’ victory in the naval battle played a decisive role in the rise of the Greek people’s national struggle for its independence.