US And Russian Warships Nearly Collide In Pacific

The BBC reports:

A Russian warship and a US warship have come close to collision in the western Pacific Ocean, with each side blaming the other for the incident. Russia’s Pacific Fleet said the cruiser USS Chancellorsville crossed just 50 metres (160ft) in front of the destroyer Admiral Vinogradov at 06:35 Moscow time (03:35 GMT).

It was forced to perform “emergency manoeuvring” to avoid the US ship. But US forces blamed the Russians, claiming their ship was responsible.

US Seventh Fleet Commander Clayton Doss called the Russians “unsafe and unprofessional”, saying their destroyer “made an unsafe manoeuvre against USS Chancellorsville”. He dismissed the Russian allegation as “propaganda”.

CNN reports:



The US account was contradicted by Russia’s Pacific Fleet, which claimed it was the US ship that instigated the incident, according to comments carried by the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency.

A US official tells CNN the US Navy is attempting to declassify images to show what happened to discount the Russian account claiming that the US was at fault.

“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,” forcing the Russian destroyer to take emergency evasive action, the report said.