Navy Tracked Russian Warship That Opened Fire, MoD Says
The Royal Navy shadowed a Russian warship that fired its guns off the coasts of Britain and France, the Ministry of Defence revealed, as it disclosed a sharp rise in Russian naval activity in UK waters. Four Navy vessels spent 21 days in July tracking the frigate as it escorted sanctioned “shadow fleet” tankers, and watched it fire some fifty rounds outside territorial waters. Ministers said Russian activity in British waters was up by a quarter on last year.
The disclosure, timed to underline Britain’s vigilance, laid bare the growing cat-and-mouse game around the ageing, often uninsured tankers Russia uses to sell its oil above the Western price cap and fund its war. The Navy said the Russian frigate’s gunnery, though outside UK and French waters, was a rare and provocative display. Britain has now sanctioned more than five hundred shadow-fleet vessels, part of a wider Western effort to choke off the Kremlin’s oil revenue. The episode adds to a pattern of Russian testing of NATO’s edges, at sea and in the air. Watch whether the naval stand-offs escalate or the shadow-fleet crackdown bites.