Russian Navy Sub Holds Drills off Crimea As NATO Warships Enter Black Sea

"In the course of the integrated exercise, the submariners practiced the algorithms of operations to exercise control of the submarine upon its surfacing and submergence in the routine and emergency modes and diving to various depths with a maximum depth of over 200 meters," the press office said in a statement.

The submarine’s crew also held an exercise for ship damage control, in which the seamen practiced measures at the seabed to eliminate a leak and prepare for the evacuation through a torpedo tube, the statement says.

"As the next stage of improving the submariners’ sea skills, the sub will practice deep diving and grounding as an element of combat training," the press office said, TASS reported.

As Russia’s National Defense Control Center reported earlier, the Russian Navy was keeping a close watch on the UK and Dutch guided missile ships that had entered the Black Sea. In particular, the UK Navy’s destroyer Defender and the Dutch frigate Evertsen sailed into the Black Sea on June 14. Before that, the US Navy’s guided missile destroyer Laboon entered the Black Sea.

The Sea Breeze multinational naval maneuvers are running in the Black Sea on June 28 - July 10. The drills involve Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Latvia and other countries. About 4,000 personnel, 40 combat ships, boats and auxiliary craft, 30 aircraft and over 100 motor and armored vehicles are expected to participate in the Sea Breeze 2021 drills.

The crews of the Black Sea Fleet’s deck-based helicopters practiced nighttime and daytime flights with take-offs and landings on the deck of a patrol ship amid NATO’s maneuvers in the Black Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported.

"The crews of Ka-27 helicopters from the separate composite air regiment performed practical flights from the deck of the patrol ship Pavel Derzhavin in the Black Sea. In accordance with the flight assignment, the helicopter crews of the Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation in interaction with the ship’s crew practiced the tasks of take-offs and landings on the deck while the ship was on the move and in anchorage in the daytime and at night," the statement says.

Concurrently, the shipborne teams in charge of helicopter flights held an exercise to check the smooth operation of all the patrol ship’s aircraft systems, the press office said.

"The training involved Ka-27PL and Ka-27PS helicopters that conducted about 10 take-offs and landings on the ship’s deck," the statement says.