SEVASTOPOL, November 6 (RIA Novosti) -- The USS Mount Whitney called at Ukraine's Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Thursday after a three-hour delay.

Sources in the municipal administration earlier said that the U.S. warship had to complete paperwork required to cross the state border.

About 80 people gathered at the port to protest the warship's arrival, saying that they were against NATO's presence in Sevastopol.

Sevastopol communists previously said they "will block the NATO warship" and that "even if the human chain is broken, the Americans will rue the day they set foot in the city."

The Blue Ridge class ship is a command and control vessel that coordinates a group of NATO ships now in the Black Sea, including two U.S., one Spanish, one German and one Polish ship.