MOSCOW, April 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Two NATO warships the US "Donald Cook" with the Aegis missile defense system on board and the large French reconnaissance ship "Dupuy de Lome" are in the Black Sea for the present. The French destroyer Dupleix, which was planned to enter the Black Sea on April 14, remains in the Cypriot port of Limassol in the Mediterranean, a Russian Defence Ministry source has told ITAR-TASS this Friday.

The Donald Cook and the Dupuy de Lome left the Romanian port of Constanta after staying there for a few days. The US destroyer was in the western part of the sea and the French ship was in its central part, the source said, noting that a fuss was created all over the world over a flight of a Russian Su-24 bomber over the US warship, though it was routine practice usual for the United States itself.

As for the French destroyer Dupleix remaining in the port of Limassol for a week, it was unknown yet when the ship would arrive in the Black Sea, the source said.

The US and French warships entered the Black Sea on April 10 in connection with the deteriorating situation in Ukraine.