UK PM says Russian warship’s warning shots ‘reckless’ not ‘sinister’

LONDON

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on June 17 said a Russian warship’s warning shots fired near a yacht in the English Channel were “reckless” but not “sinister,” in the latest at-sea tension between London and Moscow.

British defense sources have told AFP that the incident involving a U.K.-registered yacht and the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich took place around 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight, just south of British waters, on June 16.

The Russian vessel fired the shots to avoid a collision, the British Defense Ministry has said, with a defense source telling AFP the frigate was believed to have been “drifting rather than being maneuvered under power, which may have made her feel more vulnerable.”

“I think it’s reckless,” Starmer said following the incident, which came after U.K. commandos intercepted and boarded a suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel on June 14 in the same part of the Channel.

But the Ministry of Defense assessment was that there was nothing “more sinister” about it, he told the GB News television channel.

That did not “take away from the fact that clearly Russia is aggressive across Europe,” he added, however.

Moscow said earlier the frigate fired the shots after the UK-registered yacht made a “dangerous approach.”

“Following attempts to contact a British vessel in the channel, the Grigorovich fired warning shots. These were not aimed at the vessel and were an attempt to prevent a possible collision,” the U.K. Defense Ministry said.

The ministry insisted that it was an “isolated” incident not linked to the U.K.’s weekend interception of the other vessel.

The Russian Defense Ministry said “signal flares were fired and audible signals were sounded” to get the attention of the yacht on June 16.

“Despite these measures, the vessel continued its dangerous approach,” Moscow said in a statement.

Following this, “the frigate’s commander decided to fire warning shots in the vessel’s direction using the ship’s small arms,” it added.