A source acknowledged the Government was playing down the incident to deny Moscow the row it is seeking. Yesterday's incident also came just days after President Putin's abruptly terminated summit with US President Joe Biden which ended after barely three hours of talks and no agreement on Crimea or other security issues.ĭowning Street insisted Defender was taking the 'most direct' route from Ukraine to Georgia along an 'internationally recognised travel corridor' and was not subject to warning shots fired by Russia. While Britain considers these waters Ukrainian, Russia regards the peninsula as its territory, which its ships and aircraft are entitled to defend, aggressively if necessary. This includes the much vaunted Black Sea fleet with its heavily armed frigates and submarines and squadrons of supersonic aircraft.Ĭommander Owen's 'freedom of navigation' patrol took Defender into disputed seas just off the Crimean coastline. Mr Wallace and the UK's National Security Council had approved orders for Commander Owen to set course for Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula invaded by Russia in 2014 and still occupied by President Putin's elite forces. She belongs to the Royal Navy's newly formed Carrier Strike Group and her role is to provide air defence for the UK's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.īut on Tuesday she broke off from the CSG's maiden voyage to perform her own delicate, possibly dangerous task. She is also one of the most advanced warships ever constructed. Launched in 2009, Defender is the fifth of the Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers. 'We've also had many Russian jets and an unmanned aerial vehicle interact with us.' But today has seen an upsurge in the Russian response as closing to that distance of 100 to 200 yards is neither safe nor seamanlike. The 240 men and women aboard this ship performed as I would expect them to. 'I was comfortable we were out of range of its guns as we were travelling at 30 knots to their 21. 'We were confident and non-confrontational and exercising our entitlement to uphold the innocent passage of ships through international waters on a recognised shipping route. Repeated bursts of cannon fire could be heard off the deck of HMS Defender (pictured) as President Vladimir Putin's forces responded to the warship legimately entering Crimean territorial waters in the Black Sea
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