Putin goads Britain again over HMS Defender claiming even if Russia had sunk her the West ‘wouldn’t risk going to war because they know they can’t emerge as winners’
- Putin also claimed a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was operating with the warship
- HMS Defender sailed through the Black Sea in what Putin called ‘UK provocation’
- Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of Defender on June 23 to force it from an area near Crimea
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said warship acted within the law
- Dutch navy also confirmed its frigate was harassed by Russian jets last week
- Meanwhile, a US ship was shown on ship tracking services as sailing with a Ukrainian patrol boat just five miles off the coast of the contested Crimean
- Last week, a top-secret Ministry of Defence dossier containing 50 pages of classified information about Russian threat to HMS Defender was found in Kent
Russian President Vladimir Putin has goaded Britain again over its HMS Defender warship, claiming that even if Russia had sunk her the West would not risk going to war because ‘they know they can’t emerge as winners’.
Speaking on Wednesday Putin also claimed that a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with the HMS Defender last week when the ship sailed through the Black Sea in what he described as a ‘provocation’ to test Moscow’s response.
Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of Britain’s Defender on June 23 to force it from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. Britain insisted its ship wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters.
Asked if the events with HMS Defender could have triggered World War III, Putin responded that the West wouldn’t risk a full-scale conflict.
‘Even if we sank that ship, it wouldn’t put the world on the brink of World War III because those who do it know that they can’t emerge as winners in that war, and it’s very important,’ Putin said during his annual live call-in show when Russians ask him questions.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said on Wednesday that the warship acted in accordance with international law and was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters.
Putin had said the vessel illegally entered Russia’ territorial waters near Crimea earlier this month to observe in detail how Russian forces would react.
Asked to respond, Johnson’s spokesman said: ‘I’ve said all along this Royal Navy ship was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has goaded Britain again over its HMS Defender warship. Pictured: Putin delivers a speech during a Moscow meeting with the country’s Olympic athletes ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
Putin said that even if Russia had sunk Britain’s HMS Defender (pictured off the coast of Georgia on June 26, three days after the Black Sea crisis) the West wouldn’t risk going to war because ‘they know they can’t emerge as winners’
The episode was the latest to raise tensions between Russia and the West since Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a move not recognized by most countries but one that gives it access to a long Black Sea coast.
The U.S. Defense Department had no immediate comment Wednesday on Putin’s claim that one of its aircraft was with the British ship last week.
Russian officials have warned that if a Western warship enters the waters again, the military could fire to hit. Since it annexed Crimea, Russia has chafed at NATO warships visiting the area as destabilizing.
Britain has insisted the Defender was making a routine journey through an internationally recognized travel lane and remained in Ukrainian waters. The U.K., like most of the world, recognizes Crimea as part of Ukraine despite the peninsula’s annexation by Russia.
Putin charged that the U.S. aircraft’s apparent mission was to monitor the Russian military’s response to the British destroyer.
‘It was clearly a provocation, a complex one involving not only the British but also the Americans,’ he said, adding that Moscow was aware of the U.S. intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.
Tuesday also saw the Royal Netherlands Navy confirm that its De Zeven Provincien class frigate HNLMS Evertsen, which has been sailing with HMS Defender, was harassed by Russian fighter jets last week.
‘The planes repeatedly harassed the Everts between about 3.30 pm and 8.30 pm local time,’ the Royal Netherlands Navy said in a statement.
‘They flew dangerously low and close by, performing feint attacks. The fighters were armed with bombs and so-called air-to-surface missiles, intended to fire at a target from the air. After hours of intimidation, disruptions to electronic equipment of the Evertsen also took place.’
Both ships are currently part of the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth’s multinational strike group, which is also known as Carrier Strike Group 21, or CSG21.
On the same day, U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Ross (DDG-71) was shown on ship tracking services as sailing with a Ukrainian patrol boat just five miles off the coast of the contested Crimean Peninsula in the middle of the night.
The U.S. Navy denied that the ship was every near Crimea, and it is believed it could be an instance of deliberate spoofing of maritime tracking data.
Pictured: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson outside 10 Downing Street on Wednesday. His spokesman said on Wednesday that the warship acted in accordance with international law
The Russian leader lamented that the move closely followed his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva earlier this month. ‘Why would they make such provocations?’ he said.
Putin insisted that Russia would firmly defend its territory.
‘We are fighting for ourselves and our future on our own territory,’ he said. ‘It’s not us who traveled thousands of kilometers (miles) to come to them, it’s them who have come to our borders and violated our territorial waters.’
Putin emphasized that Moscow is concerned about NATO troops coming to Ukraine for training, reaffirming that a permanent Western military presence on the Ukrainian territory would challenge Russia’s vital interests and represent a red line.
He also reiterated, as he often does, that there is a close kinship between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, but accused the Ukrainian leadership of being hostile towards Russia. Putin expressed doubt about the value of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, describing him as a Western pawn.
‘Why meet Zelenskyy if he has put his country under full foreign control and key issues for Ukraine are decided not in Kyiv but in Washington, and, to a certain extent, Paris and Berlin?’ Putin asked.
Earlier this year, Russia beefed up its forces near Ukraine and warned Kyiv that it could intervene if they tried to use force to reclaim the areas in the east controlled by Russia-backed separatists since conflict there erupted in 2014. Moscow later pulled back some of its troops, but the Ukrainian authorities said that the bulk of them have remained close to the border.
The Type-45 destroyer was involved in an international incident after using an international shipping lane that went close to the Ukrainian peninsula, which is illegally occupied and claimed by Russia
In a video released by Putin’s regime, three shots each with two shells are seen fired as warning shots, by which time HMS Defender is visible but at a long distance away
Last week, a top-secret Ministry of Defence dossier containing 50 pages of classified information about the Russian threat to HMS Defender ahead of its provocative trip and British military plans for Afghanistan was found by a member of the public at a bus stop in Kent.
The dossier, which included emails and PowerPoint presentations, originated from the office of a senior official at the MoD and were passed to the BBC by a member of the public after they made the discovery early on Tuesday (June 22) morning – a day before the Black Sea crisis.
One document showed that the Royal Navy’s Type-45 destroyer was ordered to sail close to disputed territorial waters off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea in eastern European to make a show of support for Ukraine in the expectation that Moscow could respond with force.
On June 23 more than 20 Su-24s and two coastguard ships shadowed the warship as it sailed about 12 miles off the coast.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said a patrol ship fired warning shots and a jet dropped bombs in the destroyer’s path, but the UK Government rejected this account and denied that any warning shots had been fired.
Another document contained in the dossier found at the bus stop in Kent reportedly details plans for a possible British military presence in Afghanistan after the US-led NATO operation there ends – but admits that there will be a possible loss of British life.
Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of Britain’s Defender on June 23 to force it from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. Britain insisted its ship wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters. Pictured: A map showing details of the Black Sea crisis
Pictured: Pictures purportedly showing HMS Defender being intercepted by the Russian border services in the Black Sea, provided by the Russian Ministry of Defence
The Government launched an urgent probe into the matter, with an MoD spokesman telling MailOnline last week that an employee had reported the loss of sensitive defence papers.
In a statement, the MoD also insisted that HMS Defender conducted ‘innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law’.
A spokesman said: ‘The Ministry of Defence was informed last week of an incident in which sensitive defence papers were recovered by a member of the public. The department takes the security of information extremely seriously and an investigation has been launched. The employee concerned reported the loss at the time. It would be inappropriate to comment further.
‘As the public would expect, the Ministry of Defence plans carefully. As a matter of routine, that includes analysing all the potential factors affecting operational decisions. HMS Defender conducted innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.’
The document supports claims that the Black Sea passage was an attempt to rile the Russian government, which used live ammunition to deter a NATO warship for the first time since the Cold War.
It reflects the growing risk of military incidents amid soaring tensions between Moscow and the West on issues from Russian aggression towards Ukraine, her involvement in the war in Syria and the use of chemical weapons in Salisbury in 2018 to allegations of cyberwar and election hacking.
What is in the top secret MoD dossier found in the rain in a Kent bus stop?
Officials knew Russia was likely to respond with aggression to Black Sea voyage
A mission described by the MoD as an ‘innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters’ was a calculated decision by the Government to make a show of support for Ukraine, and was conducted in the expectation that Russia might respond aggressively.
The Crimea mission, dubbed ‘Op Ditroite’, was the subject of high-level discussions as late as June 22, with officials speculating about Moscow’s reaction if HMS Defender sailed close to the peninsula.
An official at Permanent Joint Headquarters, the UK’s tri-service headquarters at Northwood, reportedly asked: ‘What do we understand about the possible ‘welcome party’…?’.
Recent interactions in the eastern Mediterranean between Russian forces and a Carrier Strike Group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth had been unremarkable and ‘in line with expectations’, the document reportedly said. However, officials knew this was about to change and expected Russian naval and airforce interactions would become ‘more frequent and assertive’.
A series of slides prepared at PJHQ reportedly shows two routeing options, one described as ‘a safe and professional direct transit from Odessa to Batumi’, including a short stretch through a ‘Traffic Separation Scheme’ close to the south-west tip of Crimea.
One slide concluded that this route would ‘provide an opportunity to engage with the Ukrainian government… in what the UK recognises as Ukrainian territorial waters.’
Three potential Russian responses were outlined, from ‘safe and professional’ to ‘neither safe nor professional’. In the event, Russia responded aggressively, with radio warnings, coastguard vessels closing to within 100 metres and repeated buzzing by warplanes.
An alternative route was considered, which would have kept HMS Defender well away from contested waters. The presentation notes that this would have avoided confrontation, but ran the risk of being portrayed by Russia as evidence of ‘the UK being scared/running away’.
Officials feared that such a move would have been a boon to the Russian government, whose annexation and occupation of the Crimean peninsula is not recognised by Britain.
The MoD also anticipated competing versions of events, noting ‘we have a strong, legitimate narrative’ and adding that the presence of journalists from the Daily Mail and the BBC ‘provides an option for independent verification of HMS Defender’s action’.
British military presence in Afghanistan could be continued – but would lead to loss of life
Another document contained in the dossier found at the bus stop in Kent reportedly details plans for a possible British military presence in Afghanistan after the US-led NATO operation there ends – but admits that there will be a possible loss of British life.
The document, addressed to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s private secretary and marked ‘Secret UK Eyes Only’, reportedly discusses a US request for British assistance in several specific areas, and addresses the question of whether any Special Forces will remain in Afghanistan post-withdrawal.
Amid reports of a worsening security situation in the country, the document warns: ‘Any UK footprint in Afghanistan that persists… is assessed to be vulnerable to targeting by a complex network of actors’ – adding that ‘the option to withdraw completely remains.’
The document warns that Afghanistan is already becoming more dangerous and that the reduced presence of NATO troops ‘is already impairing the situational awareness that we (and the US) used to enjoy across the country’.
Though Britons have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-Taliban deal in February 2020, the document grimly warns that ‘this would be unlikely to remain the status quo’.
Other – Biden’s policy on China and arms export competition with European allies
The dossier also includes updates on President Joe Biden’s early focus on China and the Indo-Pacific, which they say shows ‘much continuity from the previous administration’.
It also includes updates on arms exports campaigns, including areas where Britain might find itself competing with European allies.
The BBC reports that ‘SofS’ (Mr Wallace) insists that the six-member European Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation, of which Britain is a member, ‘must not be hijacked’ by ‘entryism’ from the European Commission.
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