MOSCOW, September 09. /ITAR-TASS/. During drills to train to carry out combat tasks, the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s coastal missile units and naval aircraft on Tuesday practiced firing on sea targets simulating a vessel strike group of a hypothetical aggressor, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“Missile fire on surface targets located at the sea range to the southwest of Sevastopol was delivered by the Bastion cutting-edge mobile coastal defense missile system,” the ministry said.

“Simultaneously with the missile men, the training targets… came under a missile and bombing raid by four Su-24 [NATO reporting name: Fencer] aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation,” it said.

According to objective control data, all missile and bomb strikes hit the targets, the ministry said, adding that the military exercises involved 15 vessels, over 10 aircraft and helicopters and coastal missile units.

Sevastopol, where Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based, is situated on the Crimean Peninsula, a former Ukrainian region that recently joined Russia.

Violent anti-government protests, which started in Ukraine in November 2013 when the country’s then-president suspended the signing of an association agreement with the European Union to study the deal more thoroughly, resulted in a coup in February 2014.

Crimea refused to recognize the coup-imposed authorities in Kiev and seceded from Ukraine to reunify with Russia in mid-March 2014 after some 60 years as part of Ukraine.