LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday said a Russian warship´s warning shots to a yacht in the Channel were “reckless”, but sought to downplay fresh maritime tensions between London and Moscow.
The defence ministry´s “assessment is that it was actually a drifting warship, rather than anything more sinister,” Starmer told GB News television. Moscow has said the frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired the shots Tuesday after the UK-registered yacht made a “dangerous approach”.
The retired British couple aboard the yacht have insisted they were a safe distance away and described the experience of having shots fired near them as “surreal”.
“I think it´s reckless,” Starmer said following the incident, which came after UK commandos intercepted and boarded a suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel on Sunday in the same part of the Channel. G7 leaders including Starmer have been meeting in eastern France and agreed Tuesday to intensify pressure on Russia to end more than four years of war against Ukraine.
Despite the ministry´s assessment “that doesn´t take away from the fact that clearly Russia is aggressive across Europe,” Starmer said.
“We´re seeing the Ukraine war now in its fifth year, clear Russian aggression, and we are seeing state-backed attacks across Europe,” he added. A defence source told AFP the frigate was believed to have been “drifting rather than being manoeuvred under power, which may have made her feel more vulnerable”.
According to the Russian defence ministry “signal flares were fired and audible signals were sounded” to get the attention of the yacht which was 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, outside British waters.
