USS Donald Cook, Russia's Admiral Makarov pass each other on opposite courses south of Dardanelles - source
MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - The guided missile destroyer ,USS Donald Cook, and the Admiral Makarov frigate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet passed each other on the opposite courses in the Aegean Sea at the southern entrance to the Dardanelles, a military-diplomatic source told Interfax.
"The USS Donald Cook entered the Aegean Sea from the Dardanelles at around 8:00 a.m. today. [Russia's] Admiral Essen frigate followed it ten minutes later. Over approximately the same time span, the American ship and the Admiral Makarov frigate, which was heading from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea straits, passed each other on the opposite courses," the source said.
The USS Donald Cook entered the Black Sea on February 19. The Orekhovo-Zuyevo small missile ship and the Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet monitored its movements in the Black Sea.
The Admiral Essen frigate, which is equipped with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, left Sevastopol on February 28. According to the Black Sea Fleet's press service, the Admiral Essen will join the Russian Navy's permanent taskforce in the Mediterranean Sea, replacing the Admiral Makarov, a frigate of the same type, which has been on a mission there since November 2018.