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Top brass refutes reports about alleged incident between Russian and UK naval ships

The Defense Ministry said that the Kyzyl-60 and the Enterprise passed each other on head-on courses in the Bosporus at a safe distance

© Sergey Karpov/TASS

SEVASTOPOL, February 14. /TASS/. Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday refuted mass media reports on an alleged incident between a Russian naval ship and a ship of the British Royal Navy during passage through the Borporus Strait.

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"There was no dangerous maneuvering supposedly linked to the crossing of head-on courses that involved the Kyzyl-60 and the Enterprise ships," Captain 1st Rank Vyacheslav Trukhachov, the main spokesman for the Russian Black Sea Fleet said.

A report on the ostensible incident involving the Kyzyl-60, an auxiliary vessel of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and the Enterprise, a ship of the British Royal Navy appeared in the UK-based The Daily Star.

The Defense Ministry said in this connection that the Kyzyl-60 and the Enterprise passed each other on head-on courses in the Bosporus at a distance of around one cable length, or about 185 meters.

"That’s an absolute norm for all the parties engaged in navigation in that zone of the strait," Capt. Trukhachov said.

The passing of the ships took place at around 09:35 Turkey Time [06:35 GMT] on Tuesday, February 13 when the Kyzyl-60 was en route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.

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