MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. The Pacific Fleet will switch over to the final stage of its surprise inspection from April 18, Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu reported to Russian President Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin on Monday.

"From April 18, we will switch over to the final stage, in which naval strike groups together with coastal defense missile battalions will practice delivering missile strikes with the performance of electronic launches," the defense chief said.

All of the Pacific Fleet’s forces went on heightened alert on April 14 in a surprise combat readiness check. The naval sailors will exercise to prevent a potential enemy’s penetration into the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, repel the landing of an adversary force on the Island of Sakhalin and the southern Kuril Islands, Defense Minister Shoigu earlier reported.

The sudden combat readiness inspection commanded by Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolay Yevmenov also involves some units of the Aerospace Forces. The sweeping drills are aimed at raising the preparedness of the Russian forces for "repelling a potential enemy’s aggression from oceanic and maritime directions." The exercise will also focus on operations by strategic nuclear-powered missile-carrying submarines.