Russia's Baltic Fleet conducts air defense exercise amid presence of U.S. destroyers in Baltic Sea

MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - Russia's Baltic Fleet ships practiced air defense amid the presence of two United States destroyers, which recently entered the Baltic Sea.

"The practical exercise involved the crews of a total of about 15 surface ships of the Baltic Fleet, including corvettes, small missile ships and boats, and small anti-submarine ships and minesweepers of the Baltiysk and Leningrad naval bases," it said.

The fleet said the exercise planned in advance took place in its bases of Baltiysk and Kronstadt.

The Russian National Defense Control Center said on March 7 that the Russian military started monitoring U.S. destroyers that had entered the Black Sea.

"The Baltic Fleet's forces and assets have started monitoring the USS Donald Cook and the USS Forrest Sherman guided missile destroyers of the U.S. Navy, which entered the Baltic Sea," the center said.

The Baltic Fleet said on March 8 that it conducted an exercise with Bastion anti-ship missile systems, which conducted electronic launches as "a planned training exercise to practice defending the Kaliningrad region's coast amid a threat of missile strikes by a simulated enemy's naval units from the Baltic Sea."