SEVASTOPOL, September 20. /TASS/. About 20 Black Sea Fleet ships have departed from their naval bases to hold artillery and missile firings during drills in the Black Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"About 20 surface ships and support vessels of the Black Sea Fleet have deployed to the sea from their naval bases in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk to hold joint drills with missile and artillery firings. The warships have deployed to naval training ranges in accordance with a plan of the Black Sea Fleet’s combat training measures for the 2021 training year," the press office said in a statement.

The naval maneuvers have brought together missile and anti-submarine warfare ships, submarines, the Fleet’s minesweeping forces, auxiliary and rescue vessels, aircraft and helicopters of its naval aviation and air defense troops. Unmanned aerial vehicles will exercise visual control of the forces engaged in the drills, the statement says.

"At the initial stage, the sailors practiced the warships’ departure from their naval bases and their passage through a waterway cleared of mines, joint navigation and maneuvering in various deployment formations in intensive shipping areas," the press office said.

At their naval training ranges, the warships’ crews will conduct artillery and missile firings as part of all-arms tactical groups, hold a series of drills for minesweeping, engaging in a naval battle, hunting down and eliminating a notional enemy’s submarine, uncovering and delivering a strike against a coastal command post and repelling an attack by adversary air attack weapons, the statement says.