A Russian patrol ship and fighter plane fired warning shots at a British Naval Warship as it traveled through waters near Crimea on Wednesday, according to Russian military reports.
However, the Ministry of Defense in the United Kingdom has disputed that any warning shots were fired, implying that Russia is distorting the event.
“No bullets were fired at HMS Defender, and the notion that explosives were dropped in her route is false,” the ministry said on Twitter.
Russia was conducting a pre-planned naval exercise in the same region at the time, according to the ministry, and the “warning shots” reportedly fired by Russia might have been part of the drill.
HMS Defender was performing a “regular transit” via an internationally recognized transportation route, according to Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.
“Russian warships trailed her voyage as is customary, and she was made aware of training activities in her general area,” Wallace said, according to the BBC.
“We have just accomplished a transit into the territorial seas of Russian-occupied Crimea. “This was a planned move by the Royal Navy vessel,” Jonathan Beale, the BBC’s military reporter, said over the phone from the destroyer, which he claimed was currently heading to Georgia.
According to Beale, more than 20 Russian aircraft, including fighter planes, flew above the destroyer at points, while a Russian coast guard vessel moved to attempt to compel the destroyer to change course. He said he heard gunshots.
He didn’t disclose if he saw bombs thrown in the British ship’s course.
According to Beale’s version, the British ship’s passage through Crimean seas was intended as a freedom of navigation gesture, indicating that the United Kingdom did not acknowledge Russian rule.
According to a BBC journalist, the British crew was on high alert as they passed through Russian-controlled seas.
The British ship was accused of making a “crude provocation” and breaking international law by Russia’s foreign ministry, which said it planned to call the British ambassador over the incident.
The incident occurred at Cape Florent on the coast of Crimea, according to Russia’s military ministry, when the HMS Defender went three kilometers into Russian territorial seas just before midday local time. The warship, according to the report, left the area immediately after the guns were fired.
HMS Defender had momentarily “peeled away” from a strike group conducting NATO defensive drills in the Mediterranean in order to “carry out her own set of duties in the Black Sea,” according to the Royal Navy.
The event, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, is “concrete confirmation” of Ukraine’s view that Russia’s operations in the Black Sea are hazardous.