MOSCOW, April 09. /ITAR-TASS/. USS Donald Cook, a destroyer equipped  with the Aegis combat system will pass the Bosporus Strait and enter the Black Sea water area April 10, a source at the Russian Defense Ministry told ITAR-TASS.

“The information we have obtained suggests the US destroyer Donald Cook, equipped with Aegis combat systems, will enter the Black Sea April 10,” he said. “Proceeding from provisions of the Montreux Convention, the Americans sent a notification to Turkey in advance.”

The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits — the Dardanelles and the Bosporus — that was signed in 1936 regulates the passage of naval ships through the straits and the Sea of Marmara and puts certain limitations on the passage of ships, which do not belong to the navies of Black Sea states.

“It is noteworthy that the US has for the first time ever mentioned a connection between the ship’s mission to the Black Sea and developments in Ukraine,” the source said, adding that the Donald Cook might visit a port in Turkey or Romania during the stay in the Black Sea.

“It isn’t known yet if the ship will call into the port of Odessa to demonstrate the US support for the incumbent illegitimate authorities in Kiev, which owe so much to the Americans for arrival at power,” the source said.

He indicated that the Russian Defense Ministry officials sized up the sending of a US warship equipped with a ballistic missile system to the Black Sea as Washington’s willingness to bring the sea-based component at a closest possible distance to the Russian territory.

“Given the time-consuming character of installation of the land-surface-based elements of the system in the countries like Romania, the Americans have taken the line at an extreme intensification of visits of their warships fitted out with the antimissile system to the Black Sea.

“Beginning with February, US ships are found in the Black Sea practically on a regular basis,” the source said. “As soon as one ship leaves, a new ship — or sometimes a detachment of ships — arrives.”

“It’s not ruled out the same practice will be applied to the destroyers carrying the Aegis antimissile missile system,” he said.