Russian navy to hold Black Sea drills to practice repelling saboteurs - agencies

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Navy plans to hold exercises in the Black Sea to practice repelling underwater attacks by saboteurs, Russian news agencies on Thursday cited the defence ministry as saying. The scenario would be based on pushing back an underwater attack by saboteurs from the sea, the ministry said. Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Wednesday of using terrorist tactics to try to provoke a new conflict and destabilise annexed Crimea after Russia said it had thwarted two armed Ukrainian attempts to get saboteurs into the contested Black Sea peninsula. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)