Cold War: The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: The U.S. missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG-48) is intentionally rammed by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Soviet territorial waters, while Yorktown claims innocent passage.

Cold War

1947–1991 geopolitical rivalry between US and USSR

The Cold War was a period of global geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the…

1988 Black Sea bumping incident

Episode in the Cold War

The Black Sea bumping incident of 12 February 1988 occurred when American cruiser USS Yorktown tried to exercise the right of innocent passage through Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea during the Cold War. The cruiser was bumped by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetny with the…

USS Yorktown (CG-48)

Ticonderoga-class cruiser

USS Yorktown (DDG-48/CG-48) was a Ticonderoga-class cruiser in the United States Navy from 1984 to 2004, named for the American Revolutionary War Battle of Yorktown.

Ukrainian frigate Dnipropetrovsk

The Ukrainian frigate Dnipropetrovsk was the former Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy of the Burevestnik-class built for the Soviet Navy in the late 1970s.

Territorial waters

Coastal waters that are part of a sovereign state's sovereign territory

Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf. In a narrower sense, the term is often…

Innocent passage

Concept in the Law of the Sea

Innocent passage is a concept in the law of the sea that allows for a vessel to pass through the territorial sea of another state, subject to certain restrictions. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Article 19 defines innocent passage as: Passage is innocent so…