U.K. Denies Russia Claim Warning Shots Fired at Warship
- Fighter dropped bombs near destroyer in Black Sea, Russia says
- U.K. says Russian action was part of ‘gunnery exercise’
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Russia said it used bombs and gunfire in “warning shots” to force a British Navy destroyer to leave waters it claims in the Black Sea, but the U.K. rejected that, saying it was likely a “gunnery exercise” that didn’t affect the ship’s planned voyage.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said the confrontation took place Wednesday off Cape Fiolent, south of its Sevastopol naval base in Crimea, which the U.K. and its allies don’t recognize as Russian territory after President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of the strategic peninsula from Ukraine. The contradictory accounts underline the frictions remaining between the U.K. and Russia even as Putin and the U.S. move to patch up ties.