Overcoming extremely difficult weather conditions, more than 20 warships of the Russian Pacific Fleet proceeded through the ice fields in the area of the La Perouse Strait to the Sea of Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Russia on Monday.  

The passage of a detachment of ships through the ice fields took two days, revealed the Russian Defence Ministry today. Pilots of Ka-27PS carrier-based helicopters of the Naval Aviation of the Pacific Fleet carried out air monitoring of the ice situation along the route of ships and vessels.

The warships involved in the exercise include the corvettes Thundering, Perfect, Loud and Aldar Tsydenzhapov, the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov, the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleev, the control ship Marshal Krylov, as well as small missile and small anti-submarine ships, minesweepers and missile boats.

They were escorted through the ice fields by the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov with the entire naval exercise being led by Fleet Commander Admiral Sergei Avakyants. 

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Earlier, the Ka-27PS crews conducted ice reconnaissance of the La Perouse Strait, which connects the Seas of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, to determine the optimal route for the movement of Pacific Fleet units through the strait zone.

In accordance with the training plan for the Russian armed forces for 2022, a series of naval exercises are being held in the first two months of the year in all areas of responsibility of the fleets under the general supervision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov.

The main focus of the exercises is to work out the actions of the Navy and the Aerospace Forces to protect Russian national interests in the world ocean, as well as to counter the military threats from sea and ocean directions.

In total, over 140 warships and support vessels, more than 60 aircraft, 1,000 units of military equipment, and about 10,000 servicemen are involved in the event.

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