MOSCOW. Nov 1(Interfax) - The Russian Navy is monitoring the actions of the destroyer USS Porter which had entered the Black Sea on Saturday, the Russian National Defense Control Center said.
"The forces and equipment of the Black Sea Fleet have started monitoring the actions of the United States Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS Porter, which entered the Black Sea on October 30, 2021," it said.
USS Porter is equipped with the Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles and the Aegis ballistic missile defense system. The destroyer, as well as the destroyer of the similar class USS Donald Cook entered the Black Sea this year. The Russian military said it was monitoring these ships.
USS Porter is permanently deployed at the military base in Rota, Spain, together with USS Donald Cook, USS Roosevelt, and USS Ross of the U.S. Navy. These ships, acting together with ground-based Aegis ballistic missile defense systems in Poland and Romania are parts of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) missile defense network.
Navy ships of the United States and other NATO countries have been regularly visiting the Black Sea since the beginning of the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
The Montreux Convention limits the presence of non-littoral states in Black Sea waters to 21 days.
Former Russian Navy Chief of Staff Ret. Admiral Viktor Kravchenko told Interfax earlier that the Black Sea Fleet can track NATO ships by several means. "In sea [they are] direct monitoring of ships, from the coast [it is] using electronic reconnaissance, radar stations of coastal missile systems and aviation in the air," Kravchenko said.
Former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Adm. Vladimir Komoyedov told Interfax this summer that NATO ships have started calling the Black Sea more often. "Those ships will definitely not be welcome here. Their visits to the Black Sea have become too frequent. Their intensified presence has gone too far. They are complying with the Montreux Convention, but the activity of ships from non-Black Sea countries has never been so intensive before, even in the Soviet period," Komoyedov said.
In June, Russian servicemen and border guards fired warning shots in the path of HMS Defender that violated the Russian border off Cape Fiolent (Crimea) in the Black Sea.
On October 15, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the large antisubmarine ship Admiral Tributs had foiled an attempt by USS Chafee to cross into Russian territorial waters in the Sea of Japan by forcing the U.S. warship out.
NATO announced an intention to increase its presence in the Black Sea area.
Russia has recently considerably strengthened its military task force in the region.