Russia fired “warning shots” at a British Navy destroyer in the Black Sea, 40 kilometers off the coast of Moscow-annexed Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the British military denied firing warning shots.
According to Moscow, the British ship HMS Defender violated the maritime border. The official official news agency Sputnik reported that the plane sailed off Cape Violent, eight miles south of Sevastopol, at a depth of three kilometers in “Russian territorial waters”.
While Western military maneuvers were underway, the British warship was warned that violating “Russian territorial waters” would involve deadly force. But the warning had no effect.
Then a Su-24 fighter jet dropped some fake bombs on the ship’s path and the border patrol ship fired warning shots to force the Defender to leave “territorial waters”. Whatever the ship did.
After the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry summoned the military attache of the British Embassy in Moscow, according to Sputnik News.
According to information from the Dutch Ministry of Defense, the guns are sailing with a group of naval ships, including the Dutch Air Defense and the command frigate Everzen.
Sevastopol in the Crimea has been one of the oldest and most important Russian seaports since the end of the 18th century. In 1954, Nikita Khrushchev, the then leader of the Soviet Union, decided to annex Crimea to Ukraine. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Crimea remained with Ukraine. In 2014, a pro-Russian president was ousted in Kiev and tensions between pro-Western and pro-Russian Ukrainians continued to escalate. Russia saw an opportunity in the crisis to reclaim Crimea and annex the peninsula. But for most countries, the Crimea with its coastal waters is still officially Ukrainian.
The British deny it
On Wednesday, the British army denied that the Russian army fired warning shots at a British ship in the Black Sea. She added that the destroyer was just passing through Ukrainian waters.
“Not a single warning shot was fired at HMS Defender. The Royal Navy ship is making innocent passage in Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law,” the Ministry of Defense said on Twitter. “Not a single warning shot was fired at HMS Defender and we deny the allegation that the HMS Defender was fired.” Bombs on track.
On the contrary, the British Army referred to the “Black Sea objective exercise”, which Russia reported to the “Nautical Community”.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace wrote on Twitter that the British ship was making a “routine voyage from Odessa to Crimea via the Black Sea”. “As usual for this route, it passes through an internationally recognized lane that separates traffic. As usual, the Russian ships “followed the lane” and the destroyer was “informed to conduct exercises in the wider area.”
HMS Defender is in the region for exercises with other NATO countries starting June 28. Moscow does not serve through those exercises.
Russia wants more investigation
Russia announced on Wednesday that it would summon the British ambassador and demand that London investigate the “dangerous actions” of its destroyer in the Black Sea.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the incident, which London denied, was a “flagrant violation of the United Nations convention”. London called for a “thorough investigation” into the “dangerous actions” of the torpedo boat’s crew.
“The British ambassador will be summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry,” the Russian diplomat said.
