Washington denies Russian navy chases US submarine

Moscow on Saturday denied allegations that a Russian destroyer chased a U.S. nuclear submarine from the Kuril Islands in Russian territorial waters.

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According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian Pacific Fleet’s Marshal Shaposhnikov’s ship transmitted an underwater message ordering the “immediately bring to the surface” the Virginia-class submersible.

Faced with his rejection, unidentified “routes” were used, forcing the American submarine to “leave Russian territorial waters at full speed,” the incident said at 7:40 a.m. Saturday, a press release from the ministry said. GMT.

The U.S. military has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once.

“We will fly, navigate and operate safely in international waters,” said Capt. Kyle Rains, a spokesman for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, who declined to comment on the exact location of U.S. submarines in the area.

The U.S. submarine was spotted during a routine Russian Pacific Fleet exercise near the island of Urup in Russian territorial waters, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Contacted by the AFP, the Pentagon initially announced that it “needed to know about press releases related to this naval incident in the Pacific”, but could not confirm the details.

The incident comes just hours before a telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden amid Russian-American tensions around Ukraine.

The Kremlin denounced the American “hysteria” about Ukraine following the call between the two presidents.