MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Russia’s Northern Fleet keeps track of the USS Ross destroyer-led NATO group in the Barents Sea, the National Defense Control Center told the media on Tuesday.

"The Northern Fleet is monitoring NATO’s group led by the USS Ross destroyer of the US Navy, which entered the Barents Sea on September 7, 2020," the Defense Control Center said.

On Monday, the British Navy said that NATO countries would carry out an operation inside the Arctic Circle in order to demonstrate the alliance’s commitment to the freedom of shipping in this area. Taking part in the operation will be Britain’s Type 23 frigate The Sutherland and Tide class tanker The Tidespring, the United States’ Arleigh Burke class destroyer, and a Fridtjof Nansen-type frigate (The Thor Heyerdahl) of the Norwegian Navy, with a Danish patrol plane providing support. The British Navy said the current operation was another phase of the British-US naval exercise that was held in May.

NATO’s combined naval group - the United States’ guided missile destroyers USS Donald Cook, USS Porter and USS Roosevelt and Britain’s frigate HMS Kent - stayed in the Barents Sea on May 4-9. The universal transport ship USS Supply, a Virginia class nuclear-powered submarine, Ula-class diesel-electric submarine and two patrol planes P-3C Orion of the Norwegian Navy provided support.