Russian warship fired warning shots at civilian yacht in the English Channel
Russian Black Sea fleet warship opens fire with warning shot at pleasure craft around 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, just outside UK waters
A Russian warship has fired warning shots at a British yacht in the English Channel.
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The incident, at around 11.40am this morning, is understood to have involved the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich in the sea between the Isle of Wight and Normandy.
A British-flagged 40ft sailing yacht, reportedly on a recreational voyage, alerted the coast guard that it was fired upon after it sailed near the Admiral Grigorovich.
The Russian vessel reportedly fired the shots to avoid a potential collision after alerts were sounded. The yacht reportedly got very close to the warship before warning shots were fired, it is understood.
“It seems like it was quite foggy earlier in the day and it got a bit too close to the Grigorovich,” a defence source told The Times, describing it as a “near miss situation”.
The Russian warship sent “several audible warnings… blasting its horn” before firing, they said.
"The shots weren’t aimed at the yacht” and were “well away from anything”, the source added.
Investigations are still ongoing to establish exactly what happened.
The Grigorovich is part of Putin’s Black Sea fleet and carries heavy armaments including cruise missiles. It has been deployed near British waters for some weeks escorting tankers linked to Russia’s so-called 'shadow fleet'.
It has been spotted escorting Russian shadow fleet tankers and has been near British waters for several weeks, including near a wind farm off the Suffolk coast.
Before the shots were fired, two Royal Navy offshore patrol vessels, HMS Mersey and HMS Tyne followed it through the Channel.
The Ministry of Defence said in a statement: “We are investigating reports of an incident in the Channel.”
The warning shots are understood to have hit the water around 500 yards from the civilian craft.
The incident happened about 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, outside UK territorial waters.
The UK flagged craft reported no damage or injuries and continued on its journey. A sea boat from HMS Tyne was dispatched to the yacht to gather details and check on those on board.
It is being dealt with as an isolated incident not linked to the UK interception of shadow fleet ship Smyrtos.
It is the latest sign of rising tensions between the UK and Vladimir Putin’s country.
In an operation on Sunday, Royal Marine commandos and officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) boarded the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker Smyrtos in the channel.
Yesterday the captain of a Russian shadow fleet vessel which was intercepted by British troops was charged with contravening sanctions.
Indian national Ajay Pant, 38, was charged with directly or indirectly supplying or delivering by ship prohibited oil or oil products from Russia to a third country in June 2026, in contravention of Regulation 46Z9B of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, the NCA said on Monday.
The tanker was raided by Royal Marines during the early hours of Sunday morning, and was formally detained and sanctioned by the UK.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that Royal Marine commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency boarded a sanctioned oil tanker during a six-hour operation – the first UK-led operation of its kind.