Russian frigate that fired warning shots at British yacht was ‘reckless,’ says UK PM Starmer

By Hira Humayun, Sophie Tanno, CNN

(CNN) — UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticized the “reckless” crew of a Russian warship that fired warning shots at a yacht in the English Channel, an incident a British sailor on board described as “completely unnecessary.”

Speaking at the G7 summit in France on Wednesday, Starmer called the incident involving the Russian navy frigate Admiral Grigorovich “deeply concerning.”

“That shouldn’t have happened. ​It is reckless, and the
couple on the yacht must’ve ​been terrified,” added Starmer.

Jane Kelvey, who was sailing in international waters on board the yacht, the UK-flagged Bright Future, with her husband Alan, said that the two vessels were “definitely not on a collision course.”

Speaking to BBC Newsnight on Tuesday, Kelvey said that the Russian navy vessel “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,” she said.

“Then a minute or so later they gave another five blasts on their horn, immediately followed by four to five small arms fire,” said Kelvey, who added that it appeared to be warning fire rather than aimed at the yacht.

She said that the gunfire was “completely unnecessary” given the situation.

“As far as we were concerned, it wasn’t an incident until the gunfire started,” she said.

Russia’s defense ministry said the crew fired warning shots several hundred yards in front of the yacht, which appeared to be sailing on a collision course with the vessel.

The ministry statement said the crew believed the yacht was “on a dangerous course” that would bring it into “close proximity” with the warship.

After several unanswered attempts to contact the yacht’s crew via radio, the vessel stayed its course and the Russian crew launched signal flares to get the vessel’s attention, according to the defense ministry.

The Russian ministry said that the sailboat continued its “dangerous approach” and once it was close to 150 meters away, the Russian frigate commander “decided to open warning fire along the vessel’s course using the ship’s small arms.” The yacht then changed course away from the Russian ship, the ministry said.

“The crew of the frigate ‘Admiral Grigorovich’ acted in strict accordance with international maritime regulations and took all necessary measures to prevent an incident,” Russia’s defense ministry said.

A UK Defense Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that the warning shots were not aimed at the UK vessel but were “an attempt to prevent a possible collision.”

Starmer confirmed this assessment Wednesday, explaining that the Defense Ministry had concluded that the Russian vessel had been “drifting, and they were warning shots.”

The incident took place 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the Isle of Wight, outside UK territorial waters.

The incident comes two days after the UK military, for the first time, intercepted an oil tanker linked to Russia’s shadow fleet in the English Channel, according to Starmer. Officials are not linking the two events.

The movements of Russian warships as they pass through the English Channel, the busiest shipping area in the world, are routinely tracked and monitored by UK authorities. On Tuesday, the Grigorovich was being shadowed by HMS Mersey, a Royal Navy offshore patrol vessel operating in the area at the time of the incident, the spokesperson said.

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