MURMANSK, May 24. /TASS/. The Northern Fleet’s warships led by the heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky held multi-service force drills in the Barents Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"At sea, the warships practiced maneuvering in a deployment order, searched for a notional enemy’s submarine in interaction with Ka-27 anti-submarine warfare helicopters and Il-38 aircraft," the press office said in a statement.

The seamen also practiced the warships’ passage through a waterway cleared of mines and repelled an attack by notional saboteurs aboard fast-speed boats, the statement says.

The drills were directed by Northern Fleet Deputy Commander Vice Admiral Oleg Golubev at close-in naval training ranges. The naval maneuvers involved over 10 minesweepers, small anti-submarine warfare and missile ships, and also anti-submarine helicopters and aircraft and a special group of the Kola Flotilla of All Arms Forces for fighting underwater saboteurs, the press office said.