Russian warship fires warning shots at British yacht
Photo: The Russian ship Admiral Grigorovich (wikipedia.org)
The Russian warship Admiral Grigorovich fired warning shots at a civilian British yacht in the English Channel, The Telegraph reports.
It is reported that on Monday, June 15, the coastguard received a report from a civilian vessel sailing under the British flag near a Russian frigate.
The British vessel said the Russian ship fired warning shots after the two vessels came close to each other in the English Channel.
The Admiral Grigorovich is one of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet ships that has been operating near British waters for several weeks. It has been escorting Russian shadow fleet tankers and sailing near a wind farm off the Suffolk coast.
Two Royal Navy River-class offshore patrol vessels — HMS Mersey and HMS Tyne — escorted the Russian ship through the English Channel on Monday, before the warning shots were fired.
In recent months, the international community has significantly stepped up efforts to counter Russia’s illegal oil shipments. In early June, it became known that the European Union had authorized the forced stopping of vessels belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet.
These steps have caused noticeable concern in the Kremlin. Earlier, Nikolai Patrushev, an aide to the Russian President, said that Moscow was considering escorting its shadow fleet vessels with convoys due to the risk of detentions.
Meanwhile, members of Russia’s Federation Council have suggested mining shadow fleet tankers and detonating them if they are detained by foreign states, in order to trigger large-scale environmental consequences.
