A British warship travelling near Crimea has been trailed by more than 20 Russian planes and two coastguard ships.
The HMS Defender entered Russian territorial seas near Crimea, according to Moscow’s defense ministry, while a patrol ship fired warning shots and a jet dropped bombs in its path.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the United Kingdom stated that no warning shots were fired.
The vessel, however, has been harassed by the Russian military, according to a BBC correspondent on board.
Russia claims the peninsula and its waters as its own, but Britain believes its ship was travelling through Ukrainian waters.
Russia claimed the incident occurred near Cape Fiolent in southern Crimea, and that the British vessel then changed direction, according to a defense ministry statement to Russian news outlets.
The destroyer’s “dangerous acts,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry, were a “grave violation” of the UN Convention’s sea norms.
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, but the move was not recognized internationally.
The British Ambassador has been summoned to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
