U.S. Provocation Charged as 2 Ships Sail in Black Sea
The Soviet Union accused the United States Tuesday of a provocative violation of Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea and warned of severe repercussions in the event of future incursions.
Vladimir B. Lomeiko, a spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry, said the guided missile cruiser Yorktown and the destroyer Caron last Thursday were six miles inside the 12-mile limit on the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula on the south coast of the Ukrainian Republic.
The Soviet Union lodged an official protest with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Lomeiko said similar violations of Soviet territorial waters could have “severe consequences” for the United States.
The official news agency Tass said, “The embassy’s attention was called to the fact that the action was of a demonstrative, defiant nature and pursued clearly provocative aims.”
In Washington, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon denied that the two U.S. ships acted in a provocative manner and said they were “simply exercising the rights of free passage” in sailing within the 12-mile limit.
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