US Navy Dismisses Media Reports About USS Ross Destroyer Sailing Toward Crimea - UrduPoint

The US Navy on Wednesday denied media reports suggesting that the guided-missile destroyer USS Ross deployed in the Black Sea for NATO's Sea Breeze-2021 drills is heading toward Crimea.

Earlier in the day, media reported, citing vessel tracking websites, that the US destroyer was sailing toward the peninsula.

"Despite recent reports, @USNavy #USSRoss as of 30 minutes ago and for the foreseeable future is in port #Odesa, #Ukraine to support #ExerciseSeaBreeze," the official Twitter account of the exercise led by the US Sixth Fleet said.

Last week, the UK's HMS Defender destroyer made inroads to Russia's territorial waters near Cape Fiolent in Crimea, prompting the Russian navy to fire warning shots to divert the vessel. London denied the shots were fired at all, even though Russia's FSB security service released the video footage of the encounter, confirming Moscow's account of events.

A BBC correspondent who was aboard the British ship at the time of the incident also said he saw over 20 aircraft overhead and two Russian coastguard boats that shadowed Defender.