The Russian Ministry of Defence today announced that FSB Border Guard ships fired warning shots at the Royal Navy’s HMS Defender and Su-24M bombers dropped 4 OFAB-250 bombs in front of the destroyer after it “entered Russian territorial waters near Crimea”.
Local media claim that according to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, today at 11:52 am HMS Defender crossed the Russian state border in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
However, within minutes, the Ministry of Defence in the UK very diplomatically tweeted it was all a misunderstanding.
No warning shots have been fired at HMS Defender.
— Ministry of Defence Press Office (@DefenceHQPress) June 23, 2021
The Royal Navy ship is conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.
The bombing event was reported on Liveuamap, a leading independent global news and information site dedicated to open-source reporting. The UK is deescalating the situation, probably because the Russians have been playing mind games recently: We believe the Russians were undertaking a gunnery exercise in the Black Sea and provided the maritime community with prior-warning of their activity. No shots were directed at HMS Defender and we do not recognise the claim that bombs were dropped in her path.
Russian Su-24 made warning bombing near HMS Defender (D36) in Black Sea according to Russian Defense Ministry https://t.co/8lJBno3mA3 #Ukraine
— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) June 23, 2021
Thank you for your message. As I thought, the Russians just made a false statement. Surely a few days ago they trained to replace the AIS for a reason.https://t.co/4z52mnX9Wx
— Roman Burko (@newsburko) June 23, 2021
The tracking data of two NATO warships was faked off the coast of a Russian controlled naval base in the Black Sea while the actual ships were moored 180 miles away, USNI News has learned.The U.K. Royal Navy’s HMS Defender, a Type-45 Daring-class destroyer*, and the Royal Netherlands Navy’s HNLMS Evertsen, a De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate, pulled into Odessa in Ukraine on June 18. The group had been monitored by Russian warships while exercising in the Black Sea, according to U.S. Navy photos dated on June 17.
Putin is known for his mind games with the West and as he’s getting older he wants to see his mission through. We have to assume this is all a part of messing with NATO and particularly America via Biden.
‘We really want good relations with everyone, including, by the way, with those with whom our relations have not been improving lately, to put it mildly. We really don’t want to burn bridges. But if someone perceives our good intentions as indifference or weakness and intends to finally burn or even blow up these bridges, he should know that Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, swift and harsh.’
He has been consistent in his core messaging, since before he was president. Back in 1999, he said:
‘Russia has been a great power for centuries, and remains so. It has always had and still has legitimate zones of interest … We should not drop our guard in this respect, neither should we allow our opinion to be ignored.’
Then came the backtracking:
We would like to apologise to our followers, simply put we jumped the gun. We took official Russian sources at their word when they claimed warning shots had been fired at a British warship before a response was given by the Ministry of Defence. I'm sorry for that. – George
— UK Defence Journal (@UKDefJournal) June 23, 2021
*HMS Defender is the fifth of the Type 45 or Daring-class air-defence destroyers built for the Royal Navy. She is the eighth ship to bear the name. Construction of Defender began in 2006, and she was launched in 2009. The ship completed her first sea trials in October–November 2011, and was commissioned during March 2013.