British retired couple recall ‘scary’ moment Russian warship fired warning shots near their yacht in Channel
The owners of a yacht that encountered warning shots from a Russian warship in the English Channel described the incident as “horrific” and claimed the Kremlin lied about their ship being on a collision course.
Jane Kelvey, 68, and her husband Alan, 70, came into close contact with the Russian frigate. Admiral Grigorovich while sailing on their yachts Bright Future About 37 miles off the coast of the Isle of Wight on Tuesday morning.
In what the British Ministry of Defense described as an “isolated incident”, the warship fired warning shots at the yacht.
To talk BBC news night Jane recalled from the yacht: “[The warship] Their horns were honked five times, which meant ‘have you seen us?’ It meant.
“We immediately turned two degrees to port so they could see that we had made a deliberate change of course, which meant we had seen them.
“About a minute later they honked their horn five more times, followed immediately by four to five small arms fire. This was not directed at us. We think it was warning fire rising into the air.”
In another interview I PaperMs Kelvey said the incident was “a bit scary”.
“I crouched down. I didn’t think our safety was in danger. But this was certainly an unusual situation. As we drove off, we said to each other, what had just happened?”
Russian Defense Ministry said the yacht was making a “dangerous approach” towards the frigate Admiral GrigorovichAfter trying to attract the attention of the yacht crew with flares and sound signals, he fired warning shots.
But Ms Kelvey said her version of events was a lie. “This is not true. They are accusing us and we were innocent,” he said news night.
“We were not on a dangerous road. They did not send flares, they did not radio us, there was absolutely no problem from our perspective. In our opinion, it was not an incident until the gunfire started.”
Authorities were alerted when the warship fired warning shots nearby from a distance of about 500 yards (457 meters). As Russian warships are routinely followed by the Royal Navy as they transit the English Channel, the offshore patrol ship HMS mersey He was watching the frigate.
A sea boat from HMS tyneAnother patrol vessel, , was dispatched to the yacht to gather information and check the safety of the crew.
The incident occurred just two days after Royal Marines and National Crime Agency officers boarded the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker. Izmir On the channel.
Conservatives said the incident was “extremely concerning” and showed “once again that Russia poses a direct threat to our nation.”
Shadow defense secretary James Cartlidge said: “In the last three days we have seen the seizure of a Russian shadow fleet tanker, the exposure of Russian agents in the midst of an attack on the prime minister, and now we have received reports of a Russian frigate opening fire on a civilian yacht in the Channel.”
Martin Kelly, of crisis management firm EOS Risk, said people should be careful not to associate the incident with the UK seizure of the Russian tanker.
He said: “Warships have the right to self-defense, no matter who you are or where you come from.
“If a ship, yacht, etc. is approaching, the force escalation rules will start with a VHF (very high frequency radio) warning, if no response is received, the next escalation will go up to a more intense warning and then warning shots, which is where we came.”
