(Mirror)
The Russian and American navies have accused each other of nearly causing a collision after the two warships came within as little as 50ft of each other in the Philippine Sea.
Vladimir Putin's Pacific Fleet claimed a US guided missile cruiser was to blame as it accused the American ship, the USS Chancellorsville, of "dangerous" maneuvering. But the US Navy later dismissed Moscow's claims as "propaganda" and accused the Russian destroyer's "unprofessional" crew of making "an unsafe maneuver".
The American sailors were forced to "reverse full and steer away to avoid a collision", the US Navy said.
An aerial photo tweeted by CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr shows just how close the ships came to colliding at sea.
The Russian Navy claimed the USS Chancellorsville, a guided-missile cruise, had come within just 50 meters (165ft) of the Russian destroyer Admiral Vinogradov. Moscow claimed the Admiral Vinogradov had been forced to take emergency action to avoid a collision on Friday morning.
The US Navy responded saying the Admiral Vinogradov came to within 50-100ft of the USS Chancellorsville, forcing it to "reverse full and steer away to avoid a collision". "While operating in the Philippine Sea, a Russian Destroyer Udaloy I DD 572 made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville," US Seventh Fleet spokesman Commander Clayton Doss told Reuters.
He described a Russian assertion that the US ship had acted dangerously as "propaganda".
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