Russia's military acted in an "unnecessarily provocative" manner when its aircraft circled a Canadian ship in the Black Sea on Sunday, says Canada's minister of national defense.

“While the Russian military aircraft that circled the HMCS Toronto did not in any way pose a threat to the Canadian ship, their actions were unnecessarily provocative and risk escalating tensions even further,” Defense Minister Rob Nicholson said, as quoted by international media outlets.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted General-Major Igor Konashenkov, a senior Russian Defense Ministry official, as saying two Russian military aircraft - an SU-24 fighter jet and an AN-26 transport plane - had flown through the area on a routine flight but denied any provocative behavior.

"The planes' flight path passed through the area where the Canadian naval ship Toronto was, but without making an approach on the foreign military vessel," he said.

HMCS Toronto, which is part of NATO’s standing maritime group, entered the Black Sea on September 6 as part of the Operation Sea Breeze exercise that runs September 8 to 10.

Operation Sea Breeze brings together American and Ukrainian vessels as well as ships from France, Spain, Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria.