MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. A US submarine went more than 4 km into Russian waters and efforts to drive it away took about three hours, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting with the country’s President Vladimir Putin.
"A Pacific Fleet group discovered during exercises near the Kuril Islands a submarine, most likely from the US," Shoigu said. "As a result of efforts that took almost three hours the sub was driven away from the Russian waters where it was more than 4 km inside, quite a lot for the islands."
"As a result of special efforts, which were repeated three times, the sub was driven away from the Russian waters," he added.
A US Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine was spotted by Russia’s anti-submarine forces in the Russian territorial waters near Urup, an uninhabited island in the Kuril Islands chain at 10:40 am Moscow time on February 12. The submarine ignored the orders to the surface immediately and the Russian side used special means, after which the submarine left Russia’s territorial waters at the maximum speed.
Following the incident, a note was delivered to the US military attache in Moscow, saying that the Russian defense ministry reserves the right to take all appropriate measures security in Russia’s territorial waters to ensure Russia’s security.