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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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Russia's military responded Tuesday after the United Kingdom's government said it was investigating reports that one of Russia's warships had fired a warning shot toward a British-registered yacht.
The incident came two days after British forces boarded and detained a sanctioned Russian oil tanker in the English Channel.
British media reported the vessel in question was the frigate Admiral Grigorovich. Usually, Russian military ships are shadowed by the Royal Navy when they pass through the Channel. A patrol vessel was monitoring the ship at the time of the reported incident.
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In a later post on Telegram, the Russian Ministry of Defense said the crew had made "several attempts" to call the British vessel, but it did not change direction.
"In order to attract the attention of the yacht's crew, signal flares were launched and sound signals were given. Despite the measures taken, the vessel continued its dangerous approach," the post, originally in Russian, said. "After reducing the distance to 150 meters, the frigate commander decided to preemptively fire on the course of the vessel from small arms. After that, the yacht under the flag of Great Britain immediately changed course and continued to move away from the Russian warship."
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Warning Shot Fired in English Channel: What To Know
The incident was said to have taken place around 11:40 a.m. local time, somewhere between the Isle of Wight, off England's south coast and Normandy, France.
The yacht was said to have been fired on by the Russian ship when they were around 500 yards apart, roughly 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight.
British officials told the BBC that a couple in their 60s was on board the yacht. No injuries or damage were reported.
A spokesperson for the French Defense Ministry told Newsweek that "the use of force in international waters must respect the criteria of necessity and proportionality."
In a later statement Tuesday evening local time, the U.K. Ministry of Defense gave an account similar to Russia's.
“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," Britain's Defense Ministry said.
British Armed Forces Take Russian Vessel
Tuesday's incident is the latest in a series highlighting rising tensions between the U.K. and Russia. On Sunday, the U.K. military boarded a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the early hours of the morning, in an operation lasting around six hours.
The vessel was then held and monitored off the south coast of England, the Ministry of Defense said, as its investigations continued.
Russia has been using such vessels to evade sanctions imposed following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by transporting oil and gas critical to funding its war effort.
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The vessel was sailing under a Cameroon flag and had left Russia’s Ust-Luga port near St Petersburg on June 5 before crossing into the English Channel on Saturday, the BBC reported. It had been sanctioned in July 2025 and has undergone a name change from Myrtos to Smyrtos and switched the flag it has sailed under.
The U.K. has sanctioned around 500 ships of the 700-strong shadow fleet in which links to Moscow are hidden, often via shell companies and sailing under different flags. The measures ban them from entering UK ports and British entities from providing financial, insurance, or brokerage services to ships that supply or deliver Russian oil.
Close Encounters in the Area
The British military has reported several close encounters with Russian vessels in waters near the U.K., underscoring heightened tensions in the region. In November, officials warned Moscow they were prepared to respond to any incursion after the Russian spy ship Yantar was detected near U.K. territorial waters north of Scotland.
In April, Britain and Norway said they had tracked a Russian attack submarine and two surveillance subs operating north of the U.K. for several weeks. A Royal Navy frigate, supported by aircraft and hundreds of personnel, monitored the vessels over an extended period and blocked what officials described as potential “nefarious” activity targeting undersea infrastructure, then‑Defense Secretary John Healey said.
Healey also accused Moscow of exploiting global distractions, including the war involving Iran, to escalate hostile activity across Europe.
The incidents follow earlier confrontations between the two countries. In 2021, Russia claimed one of its warships fired warning shots and a military aircraft dropped bombs in the Black Sea to force British destroyer HMS Defender away from waters near Crimea that Moscow considers its own. The U.K. denied the account, insisting no shots were fired at its vessel.
The episode marked the first time since the Cold War that Russia publicly acknowledged using live ammunition to deter a NATO warship, highlighting the growing risk of military miscalculation as tensions between Moscow and Western allies intensified in the months leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This article contains reporting by the Associated Press.
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