![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Russian-SUdash27slash30-comma-SUdash24-and-MiGdash31-fighter-jets-on-the-tarmac-at-Buturlinovka-airbase.jpeg\" "\\"Russian")
<\/a>Russian SU-27\/30, SU-24 and MiG-31 fighter jets on the tarmac at Buturlinovka airbase. Photograph: AFP\/Getty Images. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n
A Russian fighter aircraft made repeated low-altitude, close-range passes near a US ship in the Black Sea over the weekend, the Pentagon said on Monday, condemning the action at a time of heightened US-Russian tensions over Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n “This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with their national protocols and previous agreements on the professional interaction between our militaries,” said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Colonel Warren said a Russian Su-24 aircraft, or Fencer, made 12 passes at low altitude near the USS Donald Cook, a destroyer that has been in the Black Sea since April 10. It appeared to be unarmed, he told reporters.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The incident lasted 90 minutes and took place on Saturday evening while the US ship was conducting a patrol in international waters in the western Black Sea, Colonel Warren said. The ship is now in a Romanian port.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The Russian plane, accompanied by another Fencer that did not fly close to the US ship, did not respond to multiple attempts by the Donald Cook to communicate with its pilot, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Pentagon officials have not yet discussed the incident with the Russian government, Colonel Warren said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Tensions have grown between Moscow and Washington in recent weeks over the situation in Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists on Monday ignored an ultimatum to leave occupied government buildings and another group of rebels attacked a police headquarters. Colonel Warren said the US ship was not in danger during Saturday’s incident. “I would have difficulty believing that two Russian pilots on their own would choose to take such an action,” Warren said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>“We’ve seen the Russians conduct themselves unprofessionally and in violation of international norms in Ukraine now for several months,” he said. “These continued acts of provocations and unprofessionalism do nothing to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Reuters<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Last week Russian spokesman said the USS Donald Cook’s deployment was seen as part of a systematic NATO build-up. Over the weekend Russian Su-24s repeatedly buzzed the vessel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":95195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95192"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95392,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95192\/revisions\/95392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h5>\n
Comment — April 15, 2014<\/h1>\n
<\/a>For its part Russia has condemned the deployment of the USS Donald Cook as being in “violation” of the Montreux Convention.<\/h5>\nA Russian military source told Interfax news agency:<\/h5>\n
\u201cWhat we are seeing is that for the first time since 2008, NATO is creating a naval battle group outside Russian borders\u201d<\/em><\/h5>\n
Early April Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused NATO of violating the Montreux Convention, which limits the number and duration of NATO ships deployed in the Black Sea, saying that \u201cUS warships have extended their deployment beyond the set terms a couple of times lately.\u201d<\/em><\/h5>\n
According to the treaty, warships from non-Black Sea states can only stay in the basin for up to 21 days consecutively. USS Taylor spent 32 days in February and March.<\/h5>\n
Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry expressed \u201cbemusement\u201d<\/em> over the move.<\/h5>\n
\u201cTurkey [which administers the treaty] did not inform us about the overstay. We have expressed our concern to the Turkish and US side in a verbal note,\u201d<\/em> said a statement on the ministry website.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"