Russian warship fires near British yacht

According to The Independent, the vessel involved was the Russian Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Grigorovich. The British yacht reported that shots were fired about 500 yards, or 457 metres, away. There were no injuries and no damage.

The Russian frigate was being monitored by the Royal Navy, as Russian warships are routinely shadowed when they pass through the English Channel. The offshore patrol vessel HMS Mersey was tracking the ship, while a seaboat from HMS Tyne was sent to the yacht to check the crew and gather information.

The incident came only days after Royal Marines and officers from the National Crime Agency boarded the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker Smyrtos in the Channel. The vessel was carrying 98,000 tonnes of oil and has been linked to Russia’s wider effort to move energy exports despite sanctions. French and British authorities have also recently increased pressure on Russian shadow fleet activity, showing that maritime enforcement is becoming a more visible part of Europe’s response to Moscow.

For London and Paris, the problem is no longer only the passage of Russian vessels through European waters. It is the combination of warships, the shadow fleet, sanctions evasion and pressure on civilian shipping. Russia appears ready to escalate incidents at sea in order to test Western reactions and signal that enforcement against its maritime networks will carry political and military costs.