The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG-71), which has taken part in the NATO-Ukraine Sea Breeze 2014 exercises in the north-western areas of the Black Sea, is back in the Mediterranean, a military diplomatic source told Interfax-AVN.
"The USS Ross of the U.S. Sixth Fleet has left the Black Sea basin and returned to the Mediterranean Sea," the source said.
He noted that the U.S. destroyer and the French aviso Commandant Birot came to the Black Sea on September 4 to participate in the NATO-Ukraine exercises.
Consistent with the Montreux Convention, warships of non-Black Sea states cannot stay in the Black Sea longer than 21 days. The total tonnage of such warships cannot exceed 30,000 tonnes.
Ships of the U.S. Navy and other NATO countries have been present in the Black Sea almost constantly since the beginning of the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
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