Yacht owner faults UK government for downplaying Russian warship incident

LONDON (AP) — A British yacht owner who was warned away from a Russian warship by gunfire criticized the U.K. government Wednesday as Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried to downplay the incident by saying there wasn’t anything sinister about it.

Alan Kelvey, 70, and his wife, Jane, 68, said the shots were fired Tuesday morning when they crossed paths with the warship in the English Channel.

The U.K. Defense Ministry described the encounter as “an isolated incident,” and Starmer said the Russian ship was seeking to avoid a collision. British media reported that the crew of the frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired warning shots into the air after failing to contact the yacht by other means in foggy conditions.

Alan Kelvey rejected the tone of the accounts of the incident, saying officials were trying to minimize an “inflammatory” encounter. “They’re trying to close the story down now, saying that it was foggy and they were shooting flares up,” he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. “It’s rubbish.”

No one was injured during the encounter and the couple completed their journey to Cherbourg on the northern coast of France. But the incident underscored heightened tensions between the U.K. and Russia as Moscow steps up military activity in the air and seas around Britain.

The incident occurred two days after Britain seized a tanker from Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, which Western powers say is used to skirt sanctions on Russian oil exports imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Britain has also accused Russia of mounting a campaign of sabotage and misinformation designed to destabilize European nations that support Ukraine.

Speaking at the G7 summit in France, Starmer said the encounter was “deeply concerning,” even though authorities have concluded the shots weren’t “anything more sinister” than an effort to avoid a collision.

“That doesn’t take away from the fact that clearly Russia is aggressive across Europe,” Starmer said.

The incident occurred about 20 nautical miles (23 miles, 37 kilometers) south of the Isle of Wight, outside U.K. territorial waters, as the couple were heading to France on the 40-foot (12-meter) sailboat Bright Future.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Admiral Grigorovich sounded its air horn and then fired flares after the yacht was seen sailing on a “dangerous course in close proximity with the warship.”

“After the distance had closed to 150 meters (500 feet), the frigate’s commander decided to fire warning shots across the vessel’s bow using small arms,” the ministry said. The yacht then changed course and sailed away, it said.

Alan Kelvey told the Telegraph that he and his wife were sailing toward France when they came across the warship sitting in the middle of the channel with its Automatic Identification System shut down. He said he only realized it was a Russian ship when they got close enough to see the Cyrillic lettering on its hull.

Kelvey indicated he thought it was the motorized ship’s responsibility to change course to get out of the way of his sailboat.

“I was just standing on my course and, as I’m a sailing boat on a course under sail, I’ve got right of way,” he said.