Moscow: Russia has scrambled military aircraft to head off a US warship it claims was "acting aggressively" in the Black Sea, state news agency RIA reported on Saturday.

Citing an anonymous source in Russia's Crimea-based armed forces, the agency said the US destroyer Ross was moving along the edge of Russia's territorial waters and heading in their direction.

The US Navy during military exercises. Russia has accused the US of "acting aggressively" in the Black Sea.

"The crew of the ship acted provocatively and aggressively, which concerned the operators of monitoring stations and ships of the Black Sea Fleet," RIA quoted the source as saying.