BATUMI, Georgia - A U.S. military ship on Wednesday docked at the Georgian port of Batumi to bring humanitarian aid following a devastating war with Russia earlier this month.
The move comes amid escalating tensions between Russia and Georgia's Western allies.
The United States and European nations have assailed Russia's recognition of two Georgian territories as separate nations following the fighting.
Moscow has criticized the U.S. for bringing humanitarian aid into Georgia on military ships.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman meanwhile said they had erroneously told The Associated Press that the U.S. Coast Guard cutter, the Dallas, would dock in Poti, a Black Sea port city still patrolled by Russian forces.
Batumi is well south of the zone of fighting.
Poti's port reportedly suffered heavy damage from the Russian military. In addition, Russian troops have established checkpoints on the northern approach to the city and a U.S. ship docking there could have been seen as a direct challenge.
"The decision of where to send aid was made at the highest level of the Pentagon and the only decision was to send it to Batumi," a U.S. Embassy spokesman said on condition of not being further identified.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday recognized the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. South Ossetia was at the centre of the war. Western leaders assailed Russia for violating Georgia's territorial sovereignty.
Although Western nations have called the Russian military presence in Poti a clear violation of an European Union-brokered cease-fire, a top Russian general countered Tuesday that using warships to deliver aid was "devilish."
"The heightened activity of NATO ships in the Black Sea perplexes us," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said in Moscow.
Many of the Russian forces that drove deep into Georgia after fighting broke out Aug. 7 in the separatist region of South Ossetia have pulled back, but hundreds at least are estimated to still be manning checkpoints that Russia calls "security zones" inside Georgia proper.
Two of those checkpoints are near the edge of Poti, one of Georgia's most important Black Sea ports. The Russian military also is claiming the right to patrol in the city.
Georgian officials have said much of the port's infrastructure -- radar, Coast Guard ships and other equipment -- was destroyed by the Russians.
In a move that angered Russia, the U.S. sent the missile destroyer USS McFaul to Batumi to deliver about 34 tonnes of humanitarian aid on Sunday.
The McFaul left Batumi on Tuesday but would remain in the Black Sea area, said Commander Scott Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet in Naples, Italy.
In Moscow, the deputy head of the Russian military's general staff lashed out at the U.S. naval operation.
"We are worried" about the way aid is delivered on warships, Nogovitsyn said. "This is devilish."
"This aid could be bought at any flea market," he added.
While he did not link it with the U.S. ships, Nogovitsyn said a unit of Russian naval ships was off Sukhumi -- the capital of another separatist Georgian region, Abkhazia, on the Black Sea north of Poti. He said the ships were observing the pullout of Russian troops from Georgia.
Nogovitsyn told reporters that 10 ships from NATO nations were currently in the Black Sea and that eight more are to join them soon.
The United States and other Western countries have given substantial military aid to Georgia, angering Russia, which regards Georgia as part of its historical sphere of influence. Russia also has complained bitterly about aspirations by Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO.
