SEVASTOPOL, April 22. /TASS/. The Black Sea Fleet’s forces are practicing defense of a naval group comprising seven large amphibious assault ships of the Black Sea, Northern and Baltic Fleets and 15 landing and artillery craft of the Caspian Flotilla in Crimea drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"The naval strike groups comprising missile corvettes and boats are providing anti-ship defense for the amphibious assault force. The crews of small anti-submarine warfare ships operating as part of a naval hunter-killer force are searching for a notional enemy’s submarines, providing anti-subsurface warfare defense for the amphibious assault ships. The naval strike groups are being shielded from the air by aircraft of naval aviation and an Air Force and Air Defense formation of the Southern Military District," the press office said in a statement.

The inter-fleet grouping of the amphibious assault force is transiting the sea to the designated place of landing the troops onto an unequipped shore, the statement says.

"The exercise in the Black Sea is running under the command of Southern Military District Commander Army General Alexander Dvornikov as part of a final check for the winter training period," the press office specified.