The USS Donald Cook moored in Odesa early on Feb. 25, the latest port of call for the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer during its multipurpose security mission to the Black Sea region.
The warship is expected to spend nearly three days at the commercial port of Odesa, demonstrating U.S. support for Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s increasingly aggressive behavior in the Black and Azov seas.
Part of the U.S. 6th Fleet and forward-deployed at Naval Station Rota, Spain, the USS Donald Cook entered the Black Sea via the Bosphorus Strait on Feb. 19, “to conduct maritime security operations and enhance regional maritime stability, combined readiness, and naval capability with our NATO allies and partners in the region,” according to the U.S. Navy.
In the following days, the warship participated in maritime interoperability training with Turkish frigate Fatih, having conducted an integrated surface warfare exercise, a simulated resupply-at-sea, communications and electronic warfare exercises, and a photo exercise.
USS Donald Cook arrives at Odesa port early on Feb. 25, 2019. (Serhiy Smolentsev/dumskaya.net)
USS Donald Cook has recently been an especially frequent guest to the Black Sea — last month, she also visited the port of Batumi in Georgia and conducted joint maneuvers with Georgian Coast Guard vessels.
“Each visit here affords us the unique opportunity to work with our regional maritime partners,” said Commander Matthew Powel, the destroyer’s commanding officer. “The crew and I look forward to experiencing the rich history and culture in this region.”
It the third visit to Ukraine’s waters for USS Donald Cook, with two previous short visits being made in July 2007 and September 2015.
The U.S. warship’s current mission to the Black Sea induced a stormy reaction from Russia, with its Black Sea Fleet claiming on Feb. 19 to have sent two vessels, namely a small missile ship, the Orekhovo-Zuevo, and a surveillance vessel, the Ivan Hurs, to “exercise immediate monitoring” of the American destroyer. Kremlin-controlled Russian media reported that destroyer was carrying as many as 56 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which was left without a comment from U.S. Navy.
USS Donald Cook was commissioned in 1998 in the port of Philadelphia, the 14th ship in its Arleigh Burke class. A 8,900-ton destroyer, it is reportedly capable of carrying 90 Tomahawk, or Standard, or RUM-139 cruise missiles, along with a Sea Hawk helicopter.
Tensions in the Black Sea region remain high since Russia’s Nov. 25, 2018 attack on three Ukrainian military vessels that were trying to cross the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea to enter the Azov Sea. The sea area has been aggressively monopolized by the Kremlin over the previous few months, in violation of treaty Moscow signed with Kyiv in 2003.
As a result of the incident, predated by the five-year Russian proxy land war against Ukraine in the Donbas, all 24 Ukrainian crew members were seized and detained in Moscow on a charge of border violation.
Following the clash, which prompted Ukraine’s leadership to declare a 30-day period of martial law in 10 oblasts of the country, some NATO allies, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, said they would increase their maritime presence in the Black Sea in response to Russia’s growing aggression.
In late December 2018, the British surveillance ships HMS Echo was the first NATO warship to arrive to Odesa after the Nov. 25 incident.
