Russian warship fires 'warning shots' near UK yacht in Channel

LONDON: Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots on Tuesday near a yacht making a "dangerous approach" in the English Channel, though Britain evaluated that the shots were "not aimed at the vessel."

The incident involved the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich and a UK-registered yacht around 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, just outside British waters, a UK defense source told AFP.

The latest at-sea tension between London and Moscow came after UK commandos intercepted and boarded a suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel on Sunday in the same part of the Channel.

The shooting incident coincided with G7 leaders gathering in eastern France and agreeing Tuesday to intensify pressure on Russia to end more than four years of war against Ukraine.

"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 UK defense ministry said in an update on the incident.

The ministry insisted that it was an "isolated" incident not linked to the UK's weekend interception of the other vessel.

According to the UK defense source, the Russian frigate appeared to have been "drifting rather than being maneuvered under power, which may have made her feel more vulnerable."

The Russian defense ministry said "signal flares were fired and audible signals were sounded" to get the attention of the yacht on Tuesday.

"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.

'Surreal'

A British retired couple who were aboard the yacht, Jane and Alan Kelvey, described the experience as "surreal" in an interview with the BBC.

Jane Kelvey said the warship blasted its horn five times, before the couple "immediately turned two degrees to port so they could see we had made a deliberate change of course, which meant we had seen them."

"Then a minute or so later they gave another five blasts on their horn, immediately followed by four to five small arms fire," she said.

"That wasn't aimed at us — it was warning fire that went up in the air, we believe."

She said their vessel was not on a collision course, disputing the Russian allegation that the yacht was on a "dangerous" approach.

Alan Kelvey said the gunfire was "unnecessary."

Russia 'baring teeth' 

Steve Prest, an associate fellow at the RUSI think tank and retired British navy commodore, said the warning shots could have been the warship "getting a bit nervous."

"However, in the context of what's been going on with the (Russian) Dark Fleet, the Royal Marines seizing that ship, I think this is the Russians baring their teeth," he said in written comments shared with AFP.

Labor MP Tan Dhesi, head of the parliamentary defense committee, warned that delays in defense investment, and the resignation on Thursday of UK defense minister John Healey over a spending row, "have slowed us down at a time when we need to invest in defense."

The UK-registered yacht alleged that the Russian vessel had fired the warning shots at a distance of approximately 500 yards (450 meters, 1,500 feet).

No injuries or damage was reported by the yacht, which was continuing its journey after a welfare visit by a seaboat dispatched from British naval vessel HMS Tyne.

It is understood another British naval vessel, HMS Mersey, was monitoring the Russian ship at the time.

The UK's Royal Navy said it had deployed multiple patrol ships in April to monitor the Grigorovich, which reportedly escorted tankers part of Russia's "shadow fleet" of sanctions-busting ships through the Channel.

It added that the frigate had escorted Russian-flagged ships "heading to and from the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic."

Shadow vessel captain 

Sunday's interdiction saw British commandos board the sanctioned oil tanker Smyrtos — suspected of being part of Russia's shadow fleet — in a dramatic operation hailed by Kyiv and London as a blow to Moscow's war machine.

British prosecutors on Monday charged Ajay Pant, the Indian captain of the Smyrtos, with contravening UK sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The 38-year-old appeared Tuesday at Southampton Magistrates' Court by video link from Bournemouth police station for a preliminary hearing.

He spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth, and to give his address as being in India. He also gave no indication of his plea and his solicitor requested the case be sent to the crown court.

Pant was remanded in custody, ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing at Bournemouth Crown Court on July 16.