A Russian warship fires warning shots at a British yacht in the English Channel: collision prevention, or intimidation?
A Russian Navy frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, fired warning shots near a UK-registered sailing yacht 23 miles off the Isle of Wight. The British couple on board say they had already changed course and were not on a collision course when the shots were fired — describing the incident as an unprovoked shock. Russia's Defence Ministry tells a different story: the yacht made a 'dangerous approach,' ignored signal flares and audible warnings, and the commander ordered warning shots fired at 500 yards only after the vessel 'continued its dangerous approach.' The UK MoD called it an 'isolated incident' unrelated to the Russian shadow-fleet tanker seizure in the Channel days before.
The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.
Jane and Alan Kelvey were sailing 23 miles off the Isle of Wight when they came into close contact with the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich. Jane told BBC Newsnight they gave the warship a deliberate two-degree course change so it could see they had seen it — a standard maritime signal. Then, roughly a minute later, the warship fired four to five small-arms shots into the air. 'That wasn't aimed at us — it was warning fire,' she said, but added: 'We were definitely not on a collision course. As far as we were concerned, it wasn't an incident until the gunfire started.' The UK Ministry of Defence called it an 'isolated incident,' unrelated to a Russian shadow-fleet tanker seizure in the Channel days earlier. A Royal Navy offshore patrol vessel, HMS Mersay, was already monitoring the Russian frigate at the time.
Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed the Admiral Grigorovich fired warning shots, but says the fault lies with the yacht. According to the Ministry, the vessel made a 'dangerous approach' — signal flares were shot and 'audible signals' sounded to draw its attention, but after the yacht 'continued its dangerous approach,' the frigate's commander ordered warning shots using the ship's small arms at a distance of about 500 yards. The Ministry characterises the shots as standard maritime safety procedure to prevent a collision, not a hostile act. DW notes the incident occurred outside UK territorial waters, with the Royal Navy's HMS Mersay already present and monitoring the Russian ship.
