UK denies Russian claim of shots fired against navy ship in Black Sea

The Ministry of Defence in London on Wednesday denied a Russian government claim that warning shots were fired against a British Royal Navy ship in the Black Sea.

“No warning shots have been fired at HMS Defender. The Royal Navy ship is conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law,” the ministry said.

The Russian defence ministry had earlier said a border patrol ship fired warning shots and that an Su-24 aircraft dropped four bombs along the T45 destroyer’s path.

But the MoD said: “We believe the Russians were undertaking a gunnery exercise in the Black Sea and provided the maritime community with prior-warning of their activity. 

“No shots were directed at HMS Defender and we do not recognise the claim that bombs were dropped in her path.”

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement that HMS Defender had been carrying out a “routine transit from Odesa towards Georgia across the Black Sea”.

“As is normal for this route, she entered an internationally recognised traffic separation corridor,” he said.

“She exited that corridor safely at 0945 BST (0845 GMT). As is routine, Russian vessels shadowed her passage and she was made aware of training exercises in her wider vicinity,” Wallace added.

The claims come at a time of strained diplomatic relations between London and Moscow, as well as tensions between Russia and the wider NATO western military alliance.

UK-Russia ties have been frayed since the radioactive poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, and the attempted murder by chemical weapon of ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.

Britain has also accused Russia-backed hackers of attempting to steal life-saving Covid vaccine research from labs, and has repeatedly called out the Kremlin for alleged abuses of human rights and civil liberties.

The government has been vocal about Russian sabre-rattling in Ukraine as well as Moscow’s support for the regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.