British yachting couple subjected to Russian warship fire accuse the MoD of ‘trying to shut the story down’

The British yachting couple, who were opened fire by a Russian warship in the English Channel, accused the Ministry of Defense of trying to ‘cover the story’.

Jane Kelvey, 68, and her husband Alan, 70, branded the government’s version of events ‘nonsense’ and denied poor visibility was the cause of the gunfire.

The retired couple were sailing from England to the French coast on Tuesday morning when they spotted the Russian ship 500 meters across the Channel.

As they approached, they heard the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich honk five times, followed seconds later by gunfire. The Russian ship is thought to have fired up to five times into the water ahead of them.

British military sources considered the encounter a ‘naval incident’ resulting from foggy conditions outside British waters rather than aggressive behavior by Russia.

This suggested that the blame lay with the British pensioners for getting too close to the ship.

But the couple hit back, insisting they had done nothing wrong and accusing the government of trying to suppress the incident.

They said: ‘Now they’re trying to cover the story by saying it was foggy and they were throwing torches. ‘This is nonsense.’

The yacht’s owners (both pictured) said up to five shots were fired from the Russian ship

Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused the yacht of ‘taking a dangerous route’ too close to RFN Admiral Grigorovich (pictured)

asked Mr Kelvey explained why they were blamed for the encounter: ‘Provocative, wasn’t it?’

On Wednesday Sir Keir Starmer said the shooting was ‘careless’ but not ‘bad’.

He said: ‘We were discussing this yesterday here at the G7, so we have to be vigilant, but the incident in the Channel… the MoD’s assessment is that it was actually a warship adrift rather than something more sinister.’

To talk Telegram The couple added in France: ‘We didn’t see any flares. Normally they explode and you see them. It wasn’t a fog problem. [We could] we see it clearly. “He could see us clearly.”

Faced with the couple’s accusations, the Ministry of Defense walked back Starmer’s statement and was approached for further comment.

The Russian Ministry of Defense accused the yachtsmen of ‘following a dangerous route’, adding that they came within 150 meters (492 ft) of the ship.

However, the British couple denied this, insisting they were ‘not guilty’.

Speaking to The i newspaper about her ordeal, Ms Kelvey previously said: ‘It was a bit scary. I crouched down. I didn’t think our safety was in danger. But it was certainly an unusual situation. As we walked away we asked each other “What just happened?” we asked.

He added: ‘It was completely unnecessary. We haven’t had any contact with them [Admiral Grigorovich] on our radio.

‘We were not advancing towards them; We were at a safe distance. But we started to move further away from them.’

The couple later revealed further details about the incident, including that the warship did not appear on the Automatic Identification System (AIS), that there was no flag indicating nationality, and that the crew never attempted to radio them.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Jane said: ‘As we got closer we saw Cyrillic letters on the side. We were about 400-500 meters away, it was on our starboard side, it was motionless. He was not adrift.

‘As we approached, they honked their horn five times, meaning ‘did you see us?’

Despite moving their yacht away from the warship, the couple encountered what they believed was a ‘warning shot rising into the air’.

When asked if they agreed with Russian authorities that they were responsible for the gunfire, the couple said: “Absolutely not.”

Jane added: ‘It was completely unnecessary. They blame us [but] In our opinion, we were innocent.’

He also told how Jane wanted to radio the coastguard for help after the ‘surreal’ incident.