Moscow. April 15. INTERFAX-The United States made the right decision if it really changed its mind about sending two missile destroyers to the Black Sea, former Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Navy, retired Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, told Interfax on Thursday.
"If this is the case, then this is the right decision. Apparently, they decided not to escalate it, " Kravchenko said.
According to Kravchenko, it is likely that the United States changed its mind about sending ships to the Black Sea after a warning from Moscow.
"I would not use the word de-escalation. The US just decided not to send it. I would not exaggerate the significance of the presence of two US ships in the Black Sea. Well, would they come in, and what would they do? They would have walked around, rattled their weapons, and that was all. They would have been accompanied by the ships of our Black Sea Fleet. Our coastal missile systems would have tracked them from the moment they entered the Black Sea through the Bosphorus, " Kravchenko said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed that the United States has canceled the passage of its warships in the Black Sea. "Yesterday, the US verbally confirmed to us that it canceled the passage. There is no written notification yet, " Cavusoglu told NTV on Thursday.
He said that if the US ships do not pass through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits on Thursday, then under the Montreux Convention, the US will again be able to request the passage of ships only after 15 days.
Earlier, the United States notified the Turkish authorities that two warships will pass into the Black Sea this week, the NTV channel reported, citing the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
As reported by Interfax, the US destroyers Donald Cook ("Donald Cook") and Roosevelt ("Roosevelt") left the Rota naval base in Spain, heading for the Black Sea. The ships are equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles ("Tomahawk") with a range of 1.6 thousand km and the Aegis missile defense system ("Aegis").
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said earlier that the ships were supposed to enter the Black Sea on April 14 and 15, and stay there until May 4-5.
According to the Montreux Convention, the time spent by ships of non-Black Sea countries in the Black Sea is limited to 21 days.
Sending US Navy ships to the Black Sea is a regular operation, usually coordinated with Ankara under the Montreux Convention, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on April 9.
