Russia launches massive navy drills involving most of fleet after Black Sea losses

Ukrainian drone strikes forced Vladimir Putin’s naval forces to withdraw ports in Russian-occupied Crimea in recent weeks

A Russian service member fires from aboard a warship during naval exercises at an undisclosed location (Russian Defence Ministry via Reuters)

Russia has launched massive naval drills after it was forced to pull back resources from the Black Sea thanks to repeated Ukrainian drone strikes.

The country’s navy began planned exercises involving most of its fleet in the Arctic and Pacific oceans as well as the Baltic and Caspian seas, the defence ministry said.

The Russian drills, which include 20,000 personnel and 300 ships, will test the readiness and capabilities of the navy at all levels.

It comes after repeated Ukrainian strikes forced Russia to withdraw its Black Sea Fleet warships from bases in occupied Crimea and all of its vessels out of the Sea of Azov, a body of water connected to the Black Sea.

The defence ministry said in a statement: “Units and formations of the Russian navy have begun conducting planned exercises in the operational zones of the Northern, Pacific and Baltic fleets, as well as in the area of responsibility of the Caspian Flotilla.

“The main purpose of the exercises is to check the actions of the military authorities of the navy at all levels, as well as the readiness of the crews of ships, units of naval aviation and coastal troops of the Russian navy to perform tasks.”

Russian minesweeper ‘Pyotr Ilyichev’ of the Pacific Fleet (Russian Defence Ministry via Reuters)

The drills will include over 300 combat exercises including practising the use of anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, anti-submarine weapons and “passive interference”, it added.

The drills are set to last for several days (Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via Getty)

About 300 surface ships and boats, submarines and support vessels, some 50 aircraft and more than 200 units of military and special equipment will be involved in the combat training, according to the ministry.

Since Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – the only Russian fleet formation not taking part in the drills – has struggled to adapt to dynamic modern drone warfare. The chief of the navy was replaced earlier this year.

The Russian Caspian Flotilla was taking part in the naval drills, Russia’s defence ministry said (Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via Getty)

Russia’s defence ministry also said on Tuesday that its forces had taken control of the settlement of Pivdenne in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Pivdenne, which Russia calls by its Soviet-era name of Leninske, adjoins Toretsk, a Ukrainian stronghold and coal mining town towards which Russia began pushing in June.

In 2022, Ukrainian authorities gave Pivdenne’s pre-war population as 1,404, and Toretsk’s as around 30,000. Kyiv did not immediately comment on Pivdenne’s status.

The towns are located close to the longtime frontline in place since 2014, when Russian-backed forces seized parts of the Donetsk region, including the city of Horlivka, 12km (7 miles) from Pivdenne.

Moscow said on Sunday that its forces had taken two villages, Prohres and Yevhenivka, on the approaches to Pokrovsk.