A Russian Su-24 conducted simulated strikes on USS Donald Cook when it sailed the Baltic Sea in 2016.
- Deputy Secretary of Russia’s Security Council made the threat earlier today
- Mikhail Popov’s comments come after HMS Defender entered Ukrainian waters
- Russia fired warning shots at ship, saying that the waters belonged to Moscow
- Russia annex Crimea in 2014, with most countries recognise area as Ukranian
James Robinson – Daily Mail July 15, 2021
A senior Russian security official tonight warned Britain not to sail its warships near Russian-annexed Crimea again unless it wanted its sailors to get hurt.
The warning, issued by Mikhail Popov, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, follows an incident in which Russia fired warning shots at HMS Defender off the coast of Crimea.
The Russian Navy fired warning shots close to HMS Defender recently. Click to enlarge
The British warship, a Type 45 Destroyer, exercised what London said were internationally recognised freedom of navigation rules in Ukrainian territorial waters.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and says the waters around it belong to Moscow now – despite most countries continuing to recognise the peninsula as Ukrainian.
It protested strongly against the British move at the time with a coastguard vessel firing warning shots and summoned the British ambassador for an explanation.
Popov, in an interview in the state Rossiiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, said Britain’s behaviour and its subsequent reaction to the incident was ‘bewildering’.
In particular, he criticised suggestions from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, the foreign minister, that the incident could be repeated.
‘Similar actions will be thwarted with the harshest methods in future by Russia regardless of the violator’s state allegiance. We suggest our opponents think hard about whether it’s worth organizing such provocations given the capabilities of Russia’s armed forces,’ said Popov.
‘It’s not the members of the British government who will be in the ships and vessels used for provocational ends,’ he added.
‘And it’s in that context that I want to ask a question of the same Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab – what will they say to the families of the British sailors who will get hurt in the name of such ‘great’ ideas?’.
His comments come following a similar warning by Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov.
He warned British warships could be bombed the next time they sail too close to Crimea following the incident involving HMS Destryoer.
The British Type 45 destroyer sailed within the 12-mile limit of Crimea near Cape Fiolent in the Black Sea.
After the flashpoint, which saw 20 Su-24s buzzing over the Royal Navy vessel, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov warned: ‘What can we do? We can appeal to common sense, demand respect for international law.
‘If this does not help, we can bomb not only in the direction but also on target, if our colleagues do not understand.
‘I warn everyone violating the state borders of the Russian Federation under the slogan of free navigation, from such provocative steps, because the security of our country comes first.’
Backing up his comments, the Kremlin said Moscow that would respond harshly to any similar actions in the future and warned against any further ‘provocations’.
Despite their warnings, British minister George Eustice said ‘of course’ Royal Navy ships will continue to sail through the disputed waters around Crimea, saying: ‘We never accepted the annexation of Crimea, these were Ukrainian territorial waters.’
Meanwhile Britain’s Chair of the Defence Select Committee, Tobias Ellwood, admitted there is a prospect of an engagement flaring up with Britain’s ‘dangerous game’ of sailing in disputed waters.
The former Defence Secretary told BBC 4: ‘There’s huge scope for an accident to occur, misinterpretation, leading to an actual kinetic engagement and it could be a bit of time before somebody grabs that red phone and calms things down.’
Britain has denied the Russian version, and insists HMS Defender was either in Ukrainian or international waters at all times.
Many Western countries do not accept Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea by military force as being legitimate in law.
Speaking in the aftermath of the incident last month, cabinet minister George Eustice told Sky News: ‘Under international law you can take the closest, fastest route from one point to another. HMS Defender was passing through Ukrainian waters, I think on the way to Georgia, and that was the logical route for it to take.
‘This is a very normal thing, it’s quite common actually. What was actually going on is the Russians were doing a gunnery exercise, they had given prior notice of that, they often do in that area.
‘So, I think it’s important people don’t get carried away.’
Asked if the Government would do it again, he said ‘of course, yes’, adding: ‘We never accepted the annexation of Crimea, these were Ukrainian territorial waters.’
He said while the gunner exercise was the ‘official reason’ given for the Russian activities, ‘whether that was cover for them to try and make some point, we don’t know’.
‘Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn’t,’ he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
They will sink the next UK navy ship that enter Russian waters. You can’t just wound a ship, because it can strike back. They’ll hit it with a hypersonic weapon and it will sink. The next point, as Putin recently said, sinking a Royal Navy ship inside Russian waters will not lead to WW3 or even a nuclear exchange between the UK and Russia.
Of course, it could aid escalation. The US and NATO would do precisely nothing if a RN ship was sunk in Russian waters.
The UK is merely an irritant to Russia and the Russians will treat UK warships at one would swat a fly.
Keep in mind that the stupid Imperialist West has used up all its soft power cards. The fake news looks stupid, they’ve tried all sorts of stunts to shame Russia, massive fail, and they’ve used illegal sanctions. Russia has adapted, they have a blooming security and trade relationship with China and the Russian economy is booming compared to Western States.
The West now needs to decide if they want to climb into the ring and fight. Me, I don’t think they have the balls. It’s not like WW2 which was designed by the UK and corporate Amerika where the objective was the creation of the EU and Israeli state.
You can’t rig wars between super powers armed with nukes. Maybe some believe the Russians or Chinese are willing to roll over and spent 70 plus years like the Germans being made to grovel to Israel for a none event?
I don’t believe they do and I also believe they see a different world than the one dominated by City crime cartels and the Wall Street mob.
I hope the idiots in Whitehall push their boat out & I hope the Russians sink it.
Some say that’s not patriotic, but I think it is, I don’t think the UK and my tax money should be spent screwing up the Middle East, starting the Arab Spring, wrecking African States, running global terror operations or miligning our neighbours in Europe. The British empire left its mark on the world, we don’t need a sequel. We have pathetic public school boys wandering around Whithall acting as if they own the world.
Sure, the Roths have power and immense wealth, but this was built on the idea that you could win a war and that you could bet on the outcome by controlling the markets. Well, that no longer works with 3.5 superpowers and another 5 with nukes. One of which has almost no control over the use of their nukes in name only.
These idiots who have studied history (written by winners) & the classics, they are hell bent on achieving their imotarlity by fighting wars and in their tiny minds, winning them. The frustration of a soldier who has spent so much time honing his (deliberately sexist) skills, only to find that he never got to use them. Same for leaders, they are failures, unless they’ve taken their country to war, won it & then spend the next 100 years celebrating those who stupidly gave away their lives.
At the end of the day, the City needs to keep redefining its relevance in a world that has the same skill sets. So we see a warm WW3 now well underway. So far Johnson and Rabb have been made to look the fools they are.
poms lying again no one believes their BS, i understand Vlad not wanting to hurt any
english sailors they are just pawns after all.maybe a better idea is for Russia to drop
their largest conventional bomb in the middle of their precious 1sq mile, then give them
an hour to remove their warship or the next one will be on the house of commons.
perfidious albion their pirate days are over, when will they realize, anyway my monies on
the greatest statesman of the 21st century Vladamir Putin
George Useless said…sorry Eustace said…
Royal Navy ships will continue Blah blah..
What a shit house. I’ll tell you what georgie, YOU man the vessel, & your clown mates in Troughminster.
& hear the happy roar from England as the Federation forces sink your sorry arses to the bottom of the black sea.
Weak as ‘peace’.
‘we’ can’t (or won’t) even protect our own Kent coast.
unbelievable.
Interesting comment from the British government. So, if this (not accepting Russian annexation of Crimea, and that these were Ukrainian territorial waters) is the rule of law, it goes without saying that we can do the same to the land thieves in the middle east.
It would also appear that and only based on managing future risk of international armed conflict, even perhaps cool heads prevailing. the Russian position of saying Crimea has decided their future in previous referendum is the better approach.
The British government is completely reliant on American money. Johnson is a sleazy opportunist. So yes, the British really are dumb and desperate enough to try the same stunt again.
Anonymous: “The British government is completely reliant on American money”
Have you heard of The City of London? Does the US have a House of Lords with a Lord Rothschild? The USA is broke and creaking under the weight of debt.