Russia news – live: Moscow releases video of Black Sea clash as Johnson says British navy ‘entirely right’
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson’s government has been warned Russia will “hit the target” of any foreign warship testing its territorial claims in waters off Crimea, following the showdown in the Black Sea.
The prime minister said it was “entirely right” for the HMS Defender to be in the disputed waters, as No 10 denied Russia’s claims warning shots were fired on the warship and bombs dropped in its path.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace said firing took place “out of range” of the warship, while the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said a “gunnery exercise” had been conducted in the area.
Lord Dannatt, ex-head of the British Army, said Vladimir Putin was “testing the will of the West” with the confrontation. “I’m a little bit surprised that the MoD is playing it down,” he said – adding that the idea the shots fired were merely part of a gunnery exercise was “codswallop”.
Cabinet minister George Eustice said British warships would “of course” sail again through the disputed waters. “We never accepted the annexation of Crimea – these were Ukrainian territorial waters.”
Did UK poke the Russian bear?
Labour’s Ed Miliband said the situation in the Black Sea was “confusing and worrying”, but said the Royal Navy “should not be put off by the Russians trying to grandstand”.
“I’m not sure we were poking them,” said the shadow business secretary – but he urged the government to “explain what actually happened”.
Was stand-off a ‘set up’?
Former Tory MP and ex-Change UK leader Anna Soubry is sceptical about the whole incident – referring to the skirmishes as a “set up” and asking why BBC and Daily Mail reporters were “conveniently on board”.
UK could send warships through disputed waters again, says minister
British warships would “of course” sail again through the disputed waters around Crimea, said cabinet minister George Eustice. “We never accepted the annexation of Crimea, these were Ukrainian territorial waters.”
Eustice also said the Russians may have been trying to make a point by firing shots.
The UK Ministry of Defence said Russian planes were “undertaking a gunnery exercise in the Black Sea and provided the maritime community with prior warning”.
“The official reason given by the Russians for the activities they were undertaking is that they were doing a gunnery exercise,” the environment secretary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“Whether that was cover for them to try and make some point, we don’t know. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn’t.”
Asked on Sky News if the British Navy would take the same route again, Eustice said: “Of course, yes.”
‘London has lost its manners,’ says Russian foreign ministry
The British ambassador Deborah Bronnert has been summoned to the Russian foreign ministry after Moscow accused the British Navy of straying into its territorial waters.
“London has lost its manners,” said a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry.
The Russian ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin later described the incident as “regrettable” and claimed HMS Defender had been three kilometres inside Russian territorial waters.
“[HMS Defender] did not respond to several warnings, at least the warnings were issued every 10 minutes while he was going into water, deep into the waters. And then it was stopped by means that were available,” he told Channel 4 News.
Russian claims ‘predictably inaccurate’, says Raab
The UK’s foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Thursday that no shots were fired on a British destroyer in the Black Sea and Russia’s explanation of the incident was “predictably inaccurate”.
Russia said on Wednesday it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the HMS Defender to chase it out of waters Moscow claims in the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimea peninsula.
Britain has played down the incident. “No shots were fired at HMS Defender,” Raab told reporters in Singapore during a visit to discuss trade deals.
“The Royal Navy ship was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters. We were doing so in accordance with international law and the Russian characterisation is predictably inaccurate.”
BBC footage showed that shots were fired – but well out of range of the HMS Defender.
The Ministry of Defence 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.”
Putin ‘testing will of the West’, says ex-Army chief
Lord Richard Dannatt, former head of the British Army, said Vladimir Putin was “testing the will of the West” following skirmishes in the waters off Crimea.
“I’m a little bit surprised that the Ministry of Defence is playing it down,” he told Sky News.
“It was unreasonable of the Russians to challenge HMS Defender in the way that they did.
The underlying point is that there are international laws that must be upheld by everyone and HMS Defender had the absolute right to be where she was yesterday.”
Lord Dannatt said in the past the response to Russia from the West had been “pretty limp”, but that it had become “more cohesive” recently.
He continued: “I don’t like to use the word power-game but it is actually something along those lines – Mr Putin testing the will of the West and the West demonstrating it has a rather increased resolve.
“The United States, which is traditionally the leader of the West, has had an inward looking approach. What we’re seeing now post the G7 summit is the West acting in a rather more cohesive fashion.”
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