The owners of a yacht that faced warning shots from a Russian warship in the English Channel have described the incident as “scary” and claimed the Kremlin is lying that their vessel was on a collision course.
Jane Kelvey, 68, and her husband Alan, 70, came into close contact with the Russian frigate the Admiral Grigorovich while sailing their yacht Bright Future around 23 miles off the coast of the Isle of Wight on Tuesday morning.
The warship fired warning shots towards the yacht, in what was described by the UK Ministry of Defence as an “isolated incident”.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight from the yacht, Jane recalled: "[The warship] gave out five blasts on their horn, which means 'have you seen us?'
"We 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. That wasn't aimed at us. It was warning fire that went up in the air, we believe."
In another interview with The i Paper, Ms Kelvey said the incident was “a bit scary”.
“I crouched down. I didn’t think our safety was in danger. But it was certainly unusual. As we sailed away, we said to each other, what the hell just happened?”
The Russian ministry of defence said the yacht had been on a “dangerous approach” towards the frigate Admiral Grigorovich, which fired warning shots after attempting to draw the attention of the yacht’s crew through signal flares and sound signals.
But Ms Kelvey described their version of events as lies. “It’s just not true. They’re blaming us, and as far as we’re concerned, we were blameless,” she told Newsnight.
“We were not on a dangerous course. They did not send up flares, they did not radio us, there was absolutely no problem as far as we were concerned. As far as we were concerned, it wasn't an incident until the gunfire started."
Authorities had been alerted when the warship fired warning shots nearby at a distance of approximately 500 yards (457 metres). As Russian warships are routinely shadowed by the Royal Navy when they pass through the English Channel, the offshore patrol vessel HMS Mersey was monitoring the frigate.
A seaboat from HMS Tyne, another patrol vessel, was sent to the yacht to gather information and check on the safety of the crew.
The incident came only two days after officers from the Royal Marines and the National Crime Agency boarded the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker Smyrtos in the Channel.
Sir Keir Starmer said it was “reckless” for a Russian warship to fire warning shots near a yacht in the English Channel, but stressed that there was no sign it was anything “more sinister” than a drifting vessel.
But he added it “doesn’t take away from the fact that clearly Russia is aggressive across Europe”, as he vowed to step up support for Ukraine.
The Conservatives said the incident was “hugely concerning” and showed “yet again, that Russia poses a direct threat to our nation”.
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said: "In the last three days we have seen a Russian shadow fleet tanker seized, Russian agents exposed at the heart of an attack on the prime minister and now we have reports of shots fired by a Russian frigate at a civilian yacht in the Channel.”
Martin Kelly, of crisis-management firm EOS Risk, said people should be careful not to link the incident with the seizing of the Russian tanker by the UK.
He said: “Warships, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, are entitled to self-defence.
“If a ship, yacht, etc is approaching, the rules of force escalation will start with a VHF (very high frequency radio) warning, and if there is no response the next escalation is a more intense warning, and then up to warning shots, which is where we got to here.”
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