Russian ship, aircraft ‘fired warning shots’ across bow of British warship

[Counselor706]

A Russian warship and jet interceptor fired warning shots and dropped bombs across the path of a British warship on Wednesday afternoon, according to claims from a Moscow-based news agency. The incident could be the most significant military confrontation between the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation in years.

According to unverified claims by the Interfax news agency in Moscow, HMS Defender, a Royal Navy Type 45 air defence destroyer, entered “Russian territorial waters”. Interfax said the British warship had been warned that weapons would be fired if it entered Russian waters and that a “border patrol ship” fired twice.

Shortly afterwards, the report claimed, a SU-24M — a Cold War-era Russian supersonic interceptor/bomber — dropped four “high explosive fragmentation bombs” across the course of the ship. The Russians said this, too, was a “warning”.

Source

 

[Rightguide]

From the source:

"Update: London denies!
Britain’s Ministry of Defence has denied the incident even took place in a statement received by Breitbart London, asserting that HMS Defender was on a “routine transit” on a direct route between Ukraine and Georgia and was in Ukrainian waters.

A spokesman said: “No warning shots have been fired at HMS Defender. The Royal Navy ship was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.”

 

[DeYaKen]

From the source:

"Update: London denies!
Britain’s Ministry of Defence has denied the incident even took place in a statement received by Breitbart London, asserting that HMS Defender was on a “routine transit” on a direct route between Ukraine and Georgia and was in Ukrainian waters.

A spokesman said: “No warning shots have been fired at HMS Defender. The Royal Navy ship was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.”

BBC Journalist who was on board HMS Defender, says there was distant gunfire but they had already been warned that there was a live firing exercise in the coastal area. He reports the ship being shadowed by fighter aircraft but no bombs were dropped. The most threatening part of the whole thing was attempts by coastguard boats to make the defender change course. The coastguard threatened that the ship would be fired upon and came within 100 metres.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57583363

Looks like neither side are telling the whole truth. It's just another example of sabre rattling

 

[Counselor706]

Putin: Russia could sink United Kingdom warship without triggering 'world war'

Russian forces could sink a British warship without triggering a “world war,” according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who predicted Moscow would prevail if shooting broke out.

"You said the world teetered on the brink of a world war. No, of course not,” Putin said during an annual question-and-answer session moderated by state media. “Even if we had sunk that ship, it would still be difficult to imagine that this would have put the world on the brink of WWIII, since those who are doing this, they know that they cannot emerge victorious from this war.”

Source

 

[pecksniff]

Will the world ever see again, I wonder, an old-style naval battle, ship to ship? Do combatant ships even get close enough for that any more?

 

[pecksniff]

Source

Well, it is probably true that the UK -- alone -- could not beat Russia.

 

[MartinHeidegger]

Will the world ever see again, I wonder, an old-style naval battle, ship to ship? Do combatant ships even get close enough for that any more?

I've been reading that, in the event of future naval warfare between advanced militaries, advances in missile technology will mean that battles occur outside even the range of carrier-based aircraft.