UK denies Russia’s claim that warning shots were fired at warship

Russia said it used bombs and gunfire in “warning shots” to force a British Navy destroyer to leave waters it claims in the Black Sea, but the UK rejected that, saying it was likely a “gunnery exercise” that didn’t affect the ship’s planned voyage.

The episode, which the Russian Defence Ministry said took place off Cape Fiolent, south of its Sevastopol naval base in Crimea, highlights the tensions in the area following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the strategic peninsula from Ukraine.

File photo: A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft.Credit: AP

Russia said the incident lasted about half an hour, with the HMS Defender entering waters Moscow claims as its own by about three kilometres and ignoring radio warnings. The Defender continued even after a Russian Border Patrol warship fired its cannon, leaving the area when a Su-24 aircraft dropped four bombs on its course, the Defence Ministry said.

The UK rejected that account, saying no warning shots were fired and noting Russia was conducting a “gunnery exercise” in the area.

“This morning, HMS Defender carried out a routine transit from Odessa towards Georgia across the Black Sea,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said. “As is normal for this route, she entered an internationally recognised traffic separation corridor. She exited that corridor safely at 0945BST. As is routine, Russian vessels shadowed her passage and she was made aware of training exercises in her wider vicinity.”

Russia summoned the British ambassador and military attache in Moscow to protest the incident and call for an investigation.

BBC correspondent Jonathan Beale reported from on board the Defender that as many as 20 Russian planes were in the air around the ship and shots were heard, though they were thought to be out of range during the one-hour passage. Two Russian coastguard boats shadowed the vessel, at times just 90 metres away, and one threatened to fire if the Defender didn’t change course.

“Throughout this transit, the crew on HMS Defender have been on high alert, and at one stage they did put on anti-flash masks to protect their faces, just in case there was going to be an exchange of fire,” he wrote. “They didn’t think that would happen, and it did not happen.”

The UK and its allies don’t recognise Crimea as Russian territory after Moscow annexed the region from Ukraine in 2014.

Since then, Russia has deployed its planes and ships when the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has sent ships into the area. At the height of tensions in early 2014, the US accused Russia of flying a warplane dangerously close to a US warship, an allegation Moscow denied.

Russia has claimed it expelled another British warship in the area last year, an assertion London rejected.

“Moscow is responding to NATO’s freedom-of-navigation exercises with a theatrical stunt designed to show a domestic political audience that it is ready and able to defend what it claims is Russian territory – as well as crafting a narrative of successfully repulsing Western invaders – without the risks of an actual military clash,” said Daragh McDowell, Principal Russia Analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

Russian military analysts said the use of weapons would be an unusual escalation, if it happened.

“Thank God it didn’t cause any casualties – the common sense of the British commander has to be saluted,” said Maxim Shepovalenko, a retired Russian naval captain who is deputy head of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a defence industry consultancy. “Both sides seem keen now to draw a line under the affair.”

The Defender on Tuesday left the Ukrainian port of Odessa, where officials signed agreements implementing the UK’s program to help Ukraine build up its navy, according to the ship’s Twitter account. Reached last October, the deal includes refurbishment of existing ships and delivery of new ones.

The UK said the ship’s route on Wednesday was the most direct one between Ukraine and Georgia, its next destination.

Bloomberg