MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. Russia’s Northern and Pacific Fleets have held joint exercises, including missile launches and artillery firing practices in the area of the Novosibirsk islands in the Arctic, the Russian Defense Ministry has told the media.

"Acting in cooperation the ships organized protection of a combat naval group from enemy aircraft and ships and carried out missile and artillery firing practices with on-board weapon systems," the chief of the Russian Navy’s combat training department, Viktor Kochemazov is quoted by the Defense Ministry’s news release as saying.

Also, the naval personnel practiced ships’ protection from underwater saboteurs and recaptured a ship seized by a hypothetical enemy.

"In that episode an assault party regained control of an ice-class ship of the Pacific Fleet, The Ivan Susanin, with fire support from a Ka-27 deck helicopter," Kochemazov said.

The Northern Fleet’s ships began an Arctic voyage on August 30. It is a fifth over the past several years.