The Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a strong protest on Friday after a U.S. destroyer breached the country's maritime border in the Sea of Japan on Tuesday.

The ministry in a statement recalled that the U.S. Navy destroyer John McCain sailed more than two km beyond Russia's maritime border into its territorial waters in the Peter the Great Gulf.

"We qualify what happened as an open provocation aimed at undermining peace and good order," it said.

The ministry stressed that Russia has sovereignty over the violated waters and attempts to claim them otherwise are inadmissible.

The U.S. warship intrusion will not affect the status of Russia's territorial waters, and Moscow urged Washington to refrain from such dangerous acts in the future, it said.

"Otherwise, responsibility for the possible consequences will lie entirely with the American side. We reserve the right to retaliate," the statement read.

On Tuesday, Russia's anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Vinogradov tracked the U.S. warship and threatened to ram the vessel, which sailed back to the neutral waters shortly after the warning.

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