'Surreal': British couple on yacht describe scare after warning shots from Russian warship

Jane and Alan Kelvey had an incident with a Russian warship in the English Channel.
Jane and Alan Kelvey/Personal archive via BBC
A retired British couple, who were on a yacht in the English Channel, told the BBC they had a "surreal" experience after a Russian warship fired warning shots nearby.
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Jane and Alan Kelvey were sailing a 37 kilometers off the coast of the Isle of Wight when they approached the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, classified the shots fired in the direction of the British yacht as "reckless". The UK Ministry of Defense said it was an "isolated incident".
The Russian Ministry of Defense said the yacht was taking a "dangerous approach" towards the warship, but the couple said it was "definitely not on a collision course".
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning (16/06). Kelvey told the BBC.
"We immediately turned two degrees to port so they could see that we had made a deliberate change of course, which meant we had seen them."
"Then, about a minute later, they gave five more blasts of the horn, immediately followed by four to five gun shots."
"This was not aimed at us - it was a warning shot into the air, we believe."
Russian warships frequently pass through the waters international channels in the English Channel, which are not part of the territorial waters of the United Kingdom and France. The ships are routinely monitored by British Royal Navy vessels.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said the Admiral Grigorovich's crew fired rifles near the yacht after several attempts to contact it by radio and launch warning flares. The Russian government also said its sailors acted in "strict accordance with international navigation regulations."
Starmer told the BBC the incident "should not have happened" and expressed solidarity with the couple, who he said must have been "terrified."
"What happened in the Channel was deeply worrying. It was reckless."
Jane and Alan Kelvey gave an interview to the BBC about the incident.
BBC
A British Ministry of Defense spokesman told the BBC: "Following attempts to contact a British vessel in the Channel, the Grigorovich fired warning shots."
"These shots were not aimed at the vessel; they were an attempt to avoid a possible collision."
Jane said the yacht, the Bright Future, was "definitely not on a collision course." British authorities said they had received reports from the yacht's occupants on Tuesday morning that a Russian ship had fired warning shots from about 457 meters away - a relatively close distance by maritime navigation standards.
The incident on Tuesday involved a Russian frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich. heading towards the warship in fog after departing the UK.
British authorities believe the Admiral Grigorovich was trying to signal that the frigate was adrift rather than under self-propulsion, which made it less maneuverable - possibly leading the crew to assess there was a greater risk of collision.
A boat from HMS Tyne, a British patrol ship, was sent to the yacht to gather details of the incident and check on the crew's safety.
The couple said to the BBC who wasn't scared. Jane joked that she just bent down and put her hood over her head "to protect herself", while her husband continued guiding the vessel.
The incident comes days after British Navy personnel intercepted a tanker from the so-called Russian Ghost Fleet transporting oil under sanctions across the Channel - the first operation of its kind carried out by the British Armed Forces.
The Ministry of Defense said the shots were not linked to the seizure of the tanker on Sunday.
The frigate Admiral Grigorovich was being monitored remotely by the HMS Mersey in what the Royal Navy described as a "routine operation".
Last week, a source from the NATO military alliance told the BBC that Admiral Grigorovich had been instructed by Moscow to escort Ghost Fleet vessels through the Channel.
The frigate had reportedly been operating in the area for some time and had been being repeatedly refueled by a repair vessel.
Jane and Alan Kelvey are pictured sailing on the yacht Bright Future alongside several crew members.
Jane and Alan Kelvey/Personal Archive via BBC
Satellite images analyzed by the BBC showed the repair vessel, the PM-82, operating between the English Channel and the North Sea in recent months.
NATO officials believe the PM-82 provided food, water and other supplies to the Admiral Grigorovich, allowing it to remain at sea for long periods and guide Russian ships through the Channel.
In April, the frigate was said to have escorted six Ghost Fleet vessels through the region, while was monitored by the Royal Navy.
The Royal Navy had previously stated that the Admiral Grigorovich was escorting Russian-flagged ships transiting between the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Baltic, including a submarine and around six merchant and support vessels.
Former British Defense Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC that the incident was "a very aggressive stance", given that the yacht was 450 meters away and was much smaller than the warship.
"They would have understood that that would not result in a collision," he said.
Wallace noted that this came at a time of heightened tension between the UK and Russia, including the revelation that Russia was behind a series of arson attacks targeting properties linked to Keir Starmer.
He said he believed it was yet another case of "Russian intimidation" and also criticized the UK's low level of defense spending, saying the fact that the warship was in the Channel showed that Russia was "not deterred for us."
James Parkin, a former vice-admiral of the Royal Navy, told the BBC that the use of armed force is a last resort, reserved only for self-defence.
He said the weekend's seizure of the tanker was a "huge embarrassment" for Moscow, given that "there is a Russian Navy ship in the English Channel that is there precisely to stop this sort of thing."
But he added that he would not be surprised if Tuesday's incident "had been a mistake." of calculation, rather than a deliberate act to fire on a British yacht very close to British waters."
Additional reporting by BBC Verify's Matt Murphy and Tabby Wilson.
We used artificial intelligence to translate this report, originally written in English. The text was reviewed by a BBC journalist before publication. Find out more here about how the BBC is using artificial intelligence (link to English text).

Source: G1