Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his Pacific Fleet to begin a series of combat exercises, putting the naval crews on "high alert" to test their readiness for a potential enemy incursion.

Reuters reported that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday that the exercises would include missile launches and torpedo tests amid heightened tensions with the West in the Asia-Pacific region.

"The main objective of this inspection is to increase the ability of the armed forces to repel the aggression of a probable enemy from the direction of ocean and sea," Reuters reported Shoigu saying on state television Friday.

The move comes as the United States and South Korea conduct their own set of combat exercises in the wake of an intercontinental ballistic missile test launch by North Korea, the report said.

According to the report, Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov said the naval units would be placed "on high alert" during the exercises, which will simulate an enemy landing on Russia's Sakhalin Island and the southern Kuril Islands.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the exercises "common practice" to test the military's readiness.

"This is a common practice; it has been constantly carried out in recent years and it continues," Reuters reported Peskov saying during a daily news briefing. "This is about maintaining the necessary level of combat readiness of our armed forces."

The exercises also come just days before Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu is scheduled to meet with Shoigu to discuss global and regional security starting on Sunday, Reuters reported in a separate story.

The maneuvers come just after the anniversary of Ukraine's sinking of the Russian flagship Moskva cruiser in the Black Sea on April 14, 2022, the Daily Mail reported.

According to that report, Ukraine released video Friday of what it claimed to be one of the two Neptune missiles that hit the ship, sending it to the bottom of the Black Sea with a yet unknown number of Russian casualties, to taunt Putin.

Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov openly mocked Putin and Russia with the video's release.

"If diving enthusiasts listen to me, after victory [in the war] I invite you to visit a new dive spot in the Black Sea: the Cruiser Moskva underwater museum," the Mail reported he said. "I invite you and will be your guide. It changed the course of history because a chain reaction began. It was the last day of the Russian fleet's dominance in the Black Sea."

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