On June 23, at 11:52, a Russian patrol ship fired a warning shot towards the British destroyer Defender, which violated the border in the Black Sea by 3 km.
The crew of the British ship was contacted by the ships of the Black Sea Fleet and the FSB, demanding to change course under the threat of bombing and live firing, but the warnings were ignored. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, at 12:19, the Su-24M aircraft performed a warning bombing of four bombs along the trajectory of the destroyer, so after a few minutes the destroyer Defender left the borders of the Russian Federation.
Countries with access to the sea try once again not to use weapons in border incidents, but this case is an exception. The Russian authorities believe that the British sailors clearly deliberately went to the provocation, violating the Russian maritime borders.
“After firing and bombing, if the ship had not turned back, military pilots could have calmly fired to kill in order to disable the destroyer, ” — said military pilot Vladimir Popov about this case.
According to the UK, the destroyer conducted a passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law, and the Ministry of Defense of the country said that the destroyer was accompanied by Russian ships. The British authorities claim that on this day and in this area of the Black Sea, the Russians conducted shooting exercises.
At that time, the BBC correspondent Jonathan Bill was on board, who reported that the British destroyer was deliberately going to go deeper into the zone of the territorial waters of the Crimea, because the captain insisted that this was the only possible safe passage for the ship, which was following an “internationally recognized route” to Georgia.
According to the correspondent, he counted 20 Russian military aircraft and two Russian boats in the sky, which were approaching the destroyer. Jonathan also heard shots from the Russian ships, however, which were made quite far from the ship.
“We believe that the British destroyer committed a provocation, and, moreover, we regret that it was a deliberate provocation, conscious and prepared. We are certainly concerned about such actions of the British ship. We consider such actions unacceptable and not in accordance with international law, ” — Peskov told reporters.
Most often, it isn’t the first time that ships and reconnaissance planes from other countries are trying to penetrate the Russian border in the Black Sea, although so far it has not yet reached bombing.
