The Cold War has returned to the maritime heart of Europe. The English Channel, which separates the UK from France, was the scene on Tuesday where, for the first time in six decades, a Russian warship fired warning shots at a British civilian vessel.
The last time something similar had happened between both countries was sixty years ago, in the remote Barents Sea, in the Arctic, when British fishing boats and the Soviet Union fleet -the country from which Russia presents itself as the heir- were engaged in a constant cat-and-mouse game amid accusations of Moscow spying on London.
The incident seems to have taken place literally at the doorstep of the UK, when the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich opened fire with one of its cannons to force a British yacht located about 450 meters away to change its course. The yacht - a 12-meter sailboat- appears to have been approaching the frigate and had not shown signs of changing course despite the Russian ship sounding its siren several times as a warning.
So far, London has not officially reacted, and all that is known about the incident comes from leaks from the British government to the media in that country. British authorities are investigating the circumstances of the case and do not rule out that a sudden drop in wind left the yacht with few options to maneuver quickly as demanded by the Russian ship. Both vessels were about 20 nautical miles -approximately 37 kilometers- from the Isle of Wight, and therefore, outside British territorial waters that extend up to 12 nautical miles -22 kilometers- offshore.
The entire incident occurred just two days after the British navy seized for the first time one of the 700 Russian tankers from the so-called ghost fleet that are subject to sanctions. These ships transport oil from Russia to third countries in violation of the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine. In total, Russia has between 1,300 and 1,700 tankers dedicated to these activities. This means that one in every five oil tankers in the world transports Russian oil subject to European actions. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, will announce new measures against the Russian ghost fleet at the G-7 summit in Evian (France).
The frigate Admiral Grigorovich is crossing the English Channel, closely followed by two British patrol boats, the Tyne and the Mersey. Normally, when warships cross the Channel, they are closely followed by British and French ships. It has not been long since the last time a Russian warship fired warning shots at a British one. It was almost five years ago, on June 23, 2021. The big difference is that the UK vessel was a warship, the Defender destroyer. The location of the incident was also completely different, as it took place in the Black Sea, near the Crimean Peninsula, in Ukraine but occupied by Russia since 2014.
To find incidents like the one that, if confirmed, occurred today in the English Channel, one would have to go back 60 years, when British fishing boats operating in the Barents Sea, between Norway and the Soviet Union, were engaged in a constant cat-and-mouse game amid accusations of Moscow spying on London.