The British military is investigating reports that a Russian warship fired warning shots at a UK-registered yacht in the English Channel overnight.
The Defence Ministry said it was investigating an “incident” after the yacht said it was fired on by a Russian navy vessel about 460m away. It happened about about 30km south of the Isle of Wight, outside UK territorial waters.
There were no reports of injuries or damage to the yacht.
The Russian government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
British media reported that the Russian vessel is the frigate Admiral Grigorovich. Russian warships passing through the English Channel are routinely shadowed by the Royal Navy, and patrol vessel HMS Mersey was monitoring the Russian ship at the time of the reported incident.
Russian warship fires warning shots at UK yacht in English channel - watch on TVNZ+
The incident occurred two days after British commandos boarded and detained a sanctioned tanker in the Channel that is suspected of being part of the Russian "shadow fleet". Officials are not linking the two events.
The tanker's captain, an Indian national charged with shipping Russian oil in violation of international sanctions over Moscow's war on Ukraine, was ordered held in jail after appearing Tuesday in court.
The British military has had several close encounters with Russian vessels in the region and warned Moscow in November that it was ready to deal with any incursion into its territory after the spy ship Yantar was detected on the edge of UK waters north of Scotland.
In April, Britain and Norway said they had tracked a Russian attack sub and two spy submarines operating north of the UK for several weeks.
A Royal Navy frigate, aircraft and hundreds of personnel spent weeks following the Russian vessels and prevented them from carrying out “nefarious” activities against underwater infrastructure, then-Defence Secretary John Healey said.
He accused Moscow of using the distraction of the Iran war to ramp up malign activity against Europe.
Five years ago, Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the Black Sea to force the British destroyer HMS Defender out of an area near Crimea that Moscow claimed as its territorial waters.
The UK denied that account and insisted its ship wasn’t fired upon. It was the first time since the Cold War that Moscow acknowledged using live ammunition to deter a NATO warship, reflecting the growing risk of military incidents amid soaring tensions between Russia and the West. The incident occurred about six months before Russia invaded Ukraine.
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