TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy said on Friday a Russian destroyer almost collided with one of its guided missile cruisers in the Philippine Sea in an incident it denounced as “unsafe and unprofessional”.

“While operating in the Philippine Sea, a Russian Destroyer Udaloy I DD 572 made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville,” U.S. Seventh Fleet spokesman Commander Clayton Doss said.

He described a Russian assertion that the U.S. ship had acted dangerously as “propaganda”. The Russian destroyer came to within 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) of the Chancellorsville, he said.