Russian warship incident in Channel deeply concerning, says Starmer

PM says firing of warning shots at yacht was reckless and UK is dealing with proxy attacks from Russia ‘every day’

Warning shots fired by a Russian warship sailing across the Channel on Tuesday morning were “deeply concerning and reckless”, Keir Starmer said from the G7 summit on Wednesday as he warned that the UK was dealing with proxy attacks from Russia “every single day”.

The prime minister said the Ministry of Defence had assessed that the Russian vessel was drifting and fired the shots within a few hundred metres of a British pleasure yacht.

He said: “We’re living in a more volatile and dangerous world than we have at any time in our lifetimes … That is true, it’s not just an abstract description.”

The incident took place at 11.40am on Tuesday more than 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight and less than 40 miles north of Normandy, France, when the yacht, identified as the private vessel Bright Future, sailed close to the Admiral Grigorovich and ignored at least one warning.

British sources said initial indications were that Russian sailors fired more than one shot after the yacht had got close to the heavily armed frigate.

“Following attempts to contact a British vessel in the channel, the Grigorovich fired warning shots. These were not aimed at the vessel and were an attempt to prevent a possible collision,” the Ministry of Defence said.

Russia’s defence ministry said later the yacht was on a “dangerous course” and that several attempts were made to contact it. Signal rockets were fired, the Russians said, but the yacht continued to within 150 metres before a warning shot was fired.