LONDON — A military ship and fighter jet fired alerting chance ats a British Royal Navy destroyer after it went into Russian waters in the Black Sea, Russia’s defense ministry stated in a declaration Wednesday.
The HMS Defender was “warned in advance that weapons would be used” if it crossed Russia’s border, the declaration stated. “It disregarded the warning,” it included.
A border patrol ship “fired warning shots,” soon after midday regional time (7 a.m. ET), the declaration stated, including that an Su-24M fighter jet “performed a warning bombing,” on the British ship’s course, dropping 4 high explosive fragmentation bombs.
The occurrence happened in the northwestern Black Sea.
Calling the occurrence “a gross provocation,” Russia’s foreign ministry stated in a different declaration that it would summon Deborah Bronnert, Britain’s ambassador to Russia, for a conference.
However, Ben Wallace, Britain’s defense minister, stated in a declaration that the HMS Defender was performing a “routine transit” from the Ukrainian city of Odessa towards Georgia through an “internationally recognized traffic separation corridor.”
Making no reference of alerting shots, he stated that the ship had “exited that corridor safely.”
“As is routine, Russian vessels shadowed her passage and she was made aware of training exercises in her wider vicinity,” he stated.
In a different declaration, Britain’s defense ministry stated it thought the “Russians were undertaking a gunnery exercise in the Black Sea and provided the maritime community with prior-warning of their activity.”
It included: “No shots were directed at HMS Defender and we do not recognise the claim that bombs were dropped in her path.”
Tatyana Chistikova and Reuters contributed.
