Black Sea Fleet

This has been done "in connection with NATO's exercise in the Black Sea," the news agency said, citing the Russian Defense Ministry's National Defense Control Center.

A Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarine, Krasnodar, sailed through Turkish straits and the Marmara Sea on March 14-15. Click through the photos for the story in photos.

Russia is holding naval and surface-to-air missile drills in the Black Sea region amid tensions with Ukraine and the West over the capture of three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews off the coast of Crimea last month, Reuters reported.

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The Black Sea Fleet's task force group operating in eastern Mediterranean Sea off Syria comprises 15 vessels, including two frigates and a submarine, accompanied by various landing and auxiliary ships, the Russian Navy says.

Photo: Wikipedia / Illustration

Russia has reportedly sent a missile-armed frigate to its naval base in Syria's Mediterranean coastal city of Tartus following a recent US missile strike against an airbase in the Arab country, Al-Alam reports.

Since the Russian annexation of Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, the Black Sea has become one of the areas of confrontation between Russia and the West. In response to Russian aggression towards Ukraine, NATO leaders decided in the Wales Summit on Sept. 4-5, 2014 to increase the Alliance's deterrence capability in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea, in order to reassure allies and partners.

There are currently eight Russian warships massed off of Syria confronting seven NATO ships, according to Turkish military sources. In a written response to the Hürriyet Daily News, Turkish General Staff sources gave a breakdown of the types of ship in the face-off.

Russia?s defense ministry said Sept. 24 that it will hold naval drills in the ?east Mediterranean? in September and October, as the West frets over a military buildup by Moscow in Syria.

The exercises include three warships from Russia?s Black Sea Fleet, including the Saratov landing ship, the Moskva guided missile cruiser and the Smetlivy destroyer, the ministry said in a statement.

Nine Russian and Chinese navy vessels have gathered in the Mediterranean Sea for a joint military drill that will continue until May 21, the Russian Defense Ministry has stated.

About ten Russian warships and vessels of the Black Sea Fleet and aviation are carrying out military exercises, a military official of the fleet has said.

Brigades of the Caesar Kunikov, a Project 775-class landing ship, and the Azov missile cruiser are taking part, according to Capt Nikolay Voskresenskiy's statement quoted by Russia's RIA Novosti agency.