MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. The Russian Pacific Fleet has practiced hunting down enemy submarines in the Bering Sea as part of Exercise Finval-2023, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"The Pacific Fleet continues Exercise Finval-2023 in the waters of the Chukchi and Bering seas, as well as on the Chukotka Peninsula, to safeguard the communications of the Northern Sea Route, held under the command of Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy. As part of the exercise, two hunter-killer groups of ships, consisting of corvettes the Sovershenny and the Gremyashchy and small anti-submarine ships the Ust-Ilimsk and the MPK-107, were deployed in the Bering Sea to rehearse, in cooperation with IL-38 anti-submarine aircraft of the Pacific Fleet’s naval air force, searching and attacking submarines of the hypothetical enemy," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, one of the Pacific Fleet submarines played the part of the hypothetical enemy. The ships practiced joint maneuvering, evasion of a submarine attack and its hypothetical destruction with anti-submarine weapon systems.

Exercise Finval-2023 involves about 10,000 service members and more than 50 military assets, including surface ships and support vessels, submarines, naval warplanes and helicopters, coastal missile systems Ball and Bastion, and wheeled and tracked armored vehicles capable of traversing challenging terrain.

As part of the maneuvers, cruise missiles and artillery were successfully fired at naval targets, air defenses conducted a real-life interception of a dummy cruise missile, and several other combat exercises were performed. All episodes of the exercises are defensive in nature and are intended to improve the skills of military personnel for operations on Russia's northeastern borders.