The United States, he added, had deliberately provoked the episode in the Philippine Sea in an effort to “demonstrate to us the supposed strength of the American fleet and lawless behavior in the wide expanse of global seas.”

But he also hinted that Russia was not merely an innocent bystander. “The protest of our sailors was completely justified,” he said, without specifying what “protest” he was referring to.

A United States official said the two ships nearly collided about 160 miles south of Okinawa, a Japanese island on which the United States has had an air base and various other military facilities since the end of World War II. Russia, which has declined to give up territory seized from Japan in 1945, has no quarrel with American facilities in Okinawa.

The presence of Russia’s Navy south of Okinawa — more than 1,200 miles from the Russian Pacific Fleet’s home port in Vladivostok — suggested less an effort to assert any Russian claims in the area than a gesture of support for China. Beijing has long balked at the reach of American naval power and feuded for decades with Japan over uninhabited islands that the Japanese call Senkaku and the Chinese Diaoyutai.

The United States Navy said the near collision took place around 11:45 a.m. local time as a result of an “unsafe and unprofessional” move by a Russian destroyer, the Admiral Vinogradov, which came within 50 to 100 feet of the guided missile cruiser Chancellorsville, according to a statement. The cruiser had to quickly maneuver to avoid a collision, the Navy said.

Cmdr. Clayton Doss, a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet, said in the statement that the Russian destroyer had made an “unsafe maneuver” against the Chancellorsville, “putting the safety of her crew and ship at risk.”

Russia gave an entirely different version of events, with the Pacific Fleet press service telling the state-run news agency Tass that the American vessel had hindered the passage of the Admiral Vinogradov, forcing it to perform a dangerous maneuver to avoid a collision.