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This post has been updated with Russian military video showing additional details of the transit.
Russian fighters and warships didn’t fire warning shots or drop bombs to warn off U.K. warship HMS Defender (D36) operating within the Black Sea , the U.K. Ministry of Defense said during a Wednesday statement to USNI News.
“This morning, HMS Defender administered a routine transit from Odessa towards Georgia across the Black Sea ,” said U.K. MoD head Ben Wallace within the statement.
“As is normal for this route, she entered an internationally recognized traffic separation corridor. She exited that corridor safely at [4:45 a.m.] As is routine, Russian vessels shadowed her passage and she or he was made conscious of training exercises in her wider vicinity.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Russian military officials told state-run Interfax a mixture of Russian fighters and warships had expelled Defender from waters two miles off the coast of the Moscow-seized territory of Crimea near the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol. Moscow claimed a patrol ship fired warning shots at the destroyer and a Su-24 Fencer dropped four explosive bombs within the path of the warship.
“The destroyer had been warned that weapons would be used if it trespasses the border of the Russia . It didn’t react to the warning,” the Ministry said, as reported by Interfax.
“The Black Sea Fleet acting along side the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service put an end to the Russian state border violation by British Navy destroyer HMS Defender.”
Russian military video of the transit obtained by USNI News shows fighters buzzed the ship during the transit.
In a subsequent statement responding to the Russian ministry’s comments, the U.K. MoD said Defender was conducting an “innocent passage” past Ukrainian body of water and therefore the Russians were conducting a previously announced gunnery exercise nearby.
A view of the maritime traffic separation scheme south of Crimea, near where Russians claimed they chased off a U.K. warship. Landfall Image
“No warning shots are fired at HMS Defender,” read a tweet from the U.K. MoD at 8:04 a.m.
“We believe the Russians were undertaking a gunnery exercise within the Black Sea and provided the maritime community with prior-warning of their activity. No shots were directed at HMS Defender and that we don’t recognize the claim that bombs were dropped in her path.”
USNI News understands Defender was in direct transit between Odessa and Georgia and had been warned by Russian officials about the gunnery exercise and military aircraft operating near the U.K. warship. The warship was operating in an internationally recognized maritime route to the south of Crimea that’s within 12 nautical miles off the coast of Cape Fiolent.
An AIS track believed to be Defender showed the warship came no closer than 10 nautical miles of the coastline of Crimea.
A BBC reporter was aboard Defender during the transit and described harassment from Russian forces and sent a report.
“This would be a deliberate move to form some extent to Russia. HMS Defender was getting to sail within the 12 mile (19km) limit of Crimea’s body of water . The captain insisted he was only seeking safe passage [through] an internationally recognized shipping lane,” reported Jonathan Beale.
“Two Russian coastguard ships that were shadowing the Royal Navy warship, tried to force it to change course. At one stage one among the Russian vessels closed to about 100m (328ft).”
Russian military video of HMS Defender off the coast of Crimea.
Beale also said that Russian fighters had buzzed Defender several times but didn’t say that they had dropped bombs.
Video from a Russian fighter and a military drone released by pro-Kremlin news service Zvezda copy Beale’s account showing two patrol craft trailing Defender while a minimum of two fighters fly by the destroyer.
The U.K., the U.S. and a number of other other countries don’t recognize Russia’s claim to a territorial sea around Crimea and consider it still as belonging to Ukraine.
While the MoD didn’t specify the character of the transit or its location, “innocent passage” of a warship inside any territorial sea is allowed under the U.N. Law of the ocean Convention.
The rules allow a warship to undergo a 12 nautical-mile territorial sea with no warning, as long because it conducts no military operations, launches boats or aircraft and doesn’t linger. within the past, the U.S. has used innocent passage to contest claims of Chinese holding in South China Sea as a part of its Freedom of Navigation operations.
This incident comes after USNI News reported the automated identification system (AIS) track of Defender and HNLMS Evertsen (F805) were falsified on June 18 to point out a passage off Crimea much closer to the doorway of the naval base in Sevastopol. The warships were, in fact, in port in Odessa, verified by an internet camera pointed at the port.
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