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LONDON — A Royal Navy warship has met and tracked a group of Russian military ships entering the English Channel in an operation that the Ministry of Defence repeatedly stressed was a routine matter.

Britain’s HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, monitored the movement of the seven-strong Russian group Thursday led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. The navy says that once the ships spotted each other they “sailed close by as a standard ‘meet and greet.'”

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Defence Secretary Philip Hammond says the deployment was a pre-planned operation and organized after British authorities learned of the Kuznetzov’s route.

The same Russian group, which also includes the nuclear-powered battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, went in the opposite direction through the Channel last year.

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Capt Vadim Serga, spokesman for the Russian Northern Fleet,told the Telegraph</em>: “The cruiser has accomplished its mission within the Navy task force in the Mediterranean and headed for Severomorsk. The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is expected to return to base by late May.”