Russia fleet holds HUGE military drill as tension with UK escalates

The country’s Caspian Flotilla took part in the provocative drill, with more than ten ships, boats and other vessels involved.

Among those taking part was the huge missile ship Tatarstan and the stealth frigate Dagestan.

It saw drones being flown trough the sky and tracked using visual surveillance.

They were then blasted out of the air using mounted AK-630M guns.

A spokesman for the Southern Military District said: “The Caspian Fleet and duty air defence forces held an exercise to locate unidentified air targets and counter air attacks by an imaginary enemy.

”The exercise involved crews on alert of more than 10 naval surface ships, boats and vessels of the fleet, including the missile ships Tatarstan and Dagestan and the small-size missile ships Grad Sviyazhsk and Veliky Ustyug.”

Russia has been showing off a vast array of high-tech weaponry in recent weeks, including a “hypersonic” missile and a killer robot tank.

It also has a huge array of naval weaponry at its disposal.

The country commands 313 vessels in all, including 19 destroyers, six frigates, 83 corvettes and 61 submarines.

And its latest military exercise could be seen as a response to the escalating crisis with the UK over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Theresa May today kicked 23 suspected Russian spies out of the country in the largest mass expulsion of diplomats since the Cold War, as relations with Moscow plunged into a deep-freeze.

Mrs May also announced the suspension of high-level contacts with Russia, including a boycott of this summer’s World Cup by Government ministers and members of the royal family.

And she said Russian state assets will be frozen “wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents”.

Russia says it is considering what to do in the wake of the sanctions.

Moscow’s ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, said the steps were being treated as “a provocation”.