Russian Warship's Aggression Causes Tense Moment with US Naval Ship
The U.S. and Russian navies are blaming each other after two warships nearly collided in the far eastern Pacific on Friday.
CNN reported that the two vessels, a Russian destroyer the Admiral Vinogradov and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville, came between 50 and 165 feet of each other with both ships having to perform emergency maneuvers just so they wouldn’t strike each other.
Both sides are blaming each other for the near collision.
CNN obtained chilling footage of the two warships coming within feet of each other.
New: @CNN says the U.S. Navy has provided them with video of what appears to be a near collision between a Russian and American warship in the Pacific Ocean: https://t.co/ojsKQWg3dY pic.twitter.com/ogg7R1V4cm
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 7, 2019
US Navy spokesman Cmdr. Clayton Doss told CNN, “A Russian destroyer …. made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville, closing to 50-100 feet, putting the safety of her crew and ship at risk.”
JUST IN: The Navy has released video of a Russian destroyer’s unsafe maneuver against the cruiser USS Chancellorsville today in the Philippine Sea. The destroyer got to within 50-100 feet and Chancellorsville had to put its engines at all back full to avoid a collision pic.twitter.com/9YScOzCWY2
— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) June 7, 2019
Doss called the maneuver of the Russian destroyer hazardous to both ships.
“We consider Russia’s actions during this interaction as unsafe and unprofessional,” Doss said to CNN.
According to USA Today, citing the Navy’s 7th Fleet, the Chancellorsville was preparing for a helicopter landing, so was holding a straight, steady course at the time of the incident.
The Russian vessel, which was behind it, sped up and got within 50 feet of the U.S. ship, USA Today reported, forcing the Chancellorsville crew to “reverse all engines at full throttle to avoid a collision.”
However, Russia is pointing the finger at the American vessel as the aggressor, with comments coming from the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency.
The news agency reported, “When moving (on) parallel courses of a detachment of ships of the Pacific Fleet and a carrier group of the US Navy, the cruiser Chancellorsville suddenly changed its direction and crossed within 50 meters of the Admiral Vinogradov.”
Moreover, the place where the incident occurred is even in dispute.
The United States says it happened in the Philippine Sea while the report coming from Russia says it happened in the East China Sea, according to CNN.
The report noted that “the boundary between the two bodies of water is the Senakaku Islands (also known as the Diaoyu islands in China), to the south of Japan and east of Taiwan.”
U.S. Navy warship forced to maneuver to avoid collision with Russian destroyer in Philippine Sea; Navy called provocative Russian actions ‘unsafe’ (Photo: U.S. Navy) pic.twitter.com/mQtpYoHxNQ
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) June 7, 2019
This incident comes on the heels of the U.S. accusing Russia of intercepting a U.S. aircraft on Tuesday.
The Russians intercepted the aircraft three times in a matter of three hours when the U.S. P-8A Poseidon aircraft was flying in international airspace.
The U.S. Navy called one of the interceptions “unsafe” saying it “put our pilots and crew at risk.”
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