A Russian warship has fired warning shots at a British yacht in the English Channel in an incident the Ministry of Defence is investigating, with British and French vessels mobilising in response and a Royal Navy helicopter operating over the area.
The incident occurred at around 11.40am today, with shots fired from approximately 500 yards away at a location roughly 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, between the island and the Normandy coast in international waters. There are no reports of injuries or damage to the yacht.
The vessel responsible is the Admiral Grigorovich, a 4,000-tonne guided-missile frigate and the lead ship of its class in the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet. Equipped with vertical launch systems for long-range cruise missiles, the multi-role warship is capable of anti-surface, anti-submarine and air defence operations and has recently attracted significant international attention for its role escorting Russian shadow fleet tankers through the English Channel.
HMS Mersey was monitoring the Admiral Grigorovich at the time of the incident. A seaboat from HMS Tyne subsequently visited the British yacht to gather details and verify that those on board were safe. A Royal Navy Wildcat HMA.2 helicopter is currently operating over the Channel.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We are investigating reports of an incident in the Channel.” The MoD is treating the episode as isolated and not connected to the Royal Navy’s recent boarding of a Russian oil tanker anchored around three miles off the Dorset coast near Weymouth, which Britannia Daily previously reported.
The incident comes as the UK announced a major new package of 70 sanctions targeting Russia’s shadow fleet, military procurement networks and illicit finance systems. Announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at the G7 Summit in France, the measures are designed to cut off the Kremlin’s primary energy revenue streams and disrupt its military-industrial supply chains.
