A Russian Navy vessel traveling through the English Channel fired shots on Tuesday near the yacht of a British couple, causing no damage but raising concerns amid ongoing tension between Britain and Russia over marine transit in the region.
Late on Tuesday, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the Russian ship, the Admiral Grigorovich, appeared to be trying to avoid a collision with “Bright Future,” the British boat.
Defense officials said the Grigorovich had tried unsuccessfully to communicate to the yacht and fired the shots because the Russian vessel was drifting, not operating under power, a common maneuver that could have made it difficult to avoid a crash if the yacht came too close.
Officials said the shots fired from the Russian ship were not aimed at the yacht and were single rounds, not fired from an automatic weapon.
The couple in the yacht, Jane and Alan Kelvey, told the BBC on Tuesday night that they were in no danger of colliding with the larger ship, but the Russians appeared to think they were.
”They gave out five blasts on their horn, which means ‘Have you seen us?’” Ms. Kelvey said. “We immediately turned two degrees to port so they could see we had made a deliberate change of course, which meant we had seen them.”
She added: “Then a minute or so later they gave another five blasts on their horn, immediately followed by four to five small-arms fire. That wasn’t aimed at us — it was warning fire that went up in the air, we believe.”
No damage or injuries were reported by the Kelveys, who continued on their path after reporting the incident.
Earlier in the day, British officials said that the Russian ship was about 500 yards away from the yacht when the warning shots were fired. Both ships were about 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight but outside of British territorial waters, officials said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying that the Grigorovich believed the Bright Future was “following a dangerous course toward the ship.”
The statement said the frigate’s crew tried several times to contact the yacht on international radio channels and to fire “signal rockets” and “sound signals.” Despite those efforts, the statement said, “the vessel continued its dangerous approach.” The shots were fired, according to the Russian statement, only after the yacht came within 150 meters of the ship.
“The crew of the frigate ‘Admiral Grigorovich’ acted in strict accordance with international navigation rules and took all necessary measures to prevent an incident,” the Russian statement said.
The British Navy had been aware of the presence of the Grigorovich in the Channel, saying over the weekend that the H.M.S. Mersey and H.M.S. Tyne, British patrol vessels, had been shadowing the Russian naval frigate.
On Tuesday, British officials said the Mersey was monitoring the Russian ship at the time of the episode with the yacht. They added that a boat from the Tyne had visited the yacht to make sure its passengers were safe.
The episode came two days after the British military for the first time intercepted and seized control of a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker sailing in the English Channel. The British Defense Ministry said over the weekend that boarding the tanker, the Smyrtos, was an effort to disrupt Russia’s shadow fleet, ships that covertly move fuel around the globe on Russia’s behalf, enabling it to sidestep international sanctions that were imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said that officials were treating Tuesday’s action by the Russian naval vessel and the British yacht as an “isolated incident” unrelated to the Smyrtos interception.
Alina Lobzina contributed reporting.
Source:
www.nytimes.com
