The American guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell came close to Russian territorial waters in the Peter the Great Bay area in the Sea of Japan.
The Far Eastern publication PrimaMedia writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
USS McCampbell (DDG-85) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer. Since July 2007, the ship has been part of the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, which is based in the Japanese port of Yokosuka.
The US Navy called this passage of the American vessel a “challenge” for Russia and its “excessive maritime claims.”
“The destroyer McCampbell sailed in close proximity to Peter the Great Gulf in order to challenge Russia’s excessive... demands and defend the rights of the United States and other countries to the lawful use of maritime spaces,” the publication quotes US Pacific Fleet spokesman Rachel McMarr.
She stressed that the United States does not recognize Russian claims to areas of the Sea of Japan that are beyond the 12-mile zone, and added that such a passage by a US Navy ship occurred for the first time since 1987: “These operations demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and act wherever permitted by international law.”
Russia stated that the “walk” of the American ship was completely controlled and did not pose any threat.
“In legal terms, they did not violate the economic zone of the Russian Federation, our laws - they can be in these waters. From the point of view of the military aspect, there is nothing new here. In Soviet times, American submarines were permanently stationed in Peter the Great Bay, monitoring, keeping watch, and conducting tracking exercises. But there is no demonstration of force here, so our military does not particularly comment on this. There is no military threat here against the Russian Federation,” the Far Eastern publication Porto Franko quotes the words of first-rank reserve captain, professor of the Department of International Relations and Law at VSUES, Alexander Tushkov.
The appearance of an American warship near the Russian borders is connected with the recent provocation of the Ukrainian military in the Kerch Strait region, the Vesti FM radio station said. Vladivostok,” head of the department of international public and private law at the FEFU Law School, Vyacheslav Gavrilov: “There is no other explanation. Suddenly, a few days after the situation in the Kerch Strait, such a demonstration of force occurred near the Primorsky Territory. The logic of the Americans is natural only to them: everything they do is democratic and legal, and is not subject to any challenge. They interpret international law in such a way that their interests are ensured.”