A retired British couple caught up in an incident with a Russian warship in the English Channel have told The i Paper about the “scary” encounter.
Jane and Alan Kelvey were sailing their 40ft yacht, Bright Future, from the south coast of England to northern France when it came within 500 yards of the Kremlin frigate the Admiral Grigorovich, before it fired warning shots into the air.
The couple, aged 68 and 70, were around 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight when they heard “four or five gunshots” fired from the Russian warship.
“It was a bit scary,” Mrs Kelvey told The i Paper. “I crouched down. I didn’t think our safety was in danger. But it was certainly unusual. “As we sailed away, we said to each other, ‘What the hell just happened?'”
Describing the encounter, she said: “We could see the ship in the distance with what looked like Cyrillic writing on the side. We heard five blasts on their horn, as a warning.
“We weren’t moving towards them – we were at a safe distance. But we began pulling further away from then.
“We heard another five blasts on the horn as a warning. Then we heard four or five gun shots.
“They were warning shots, fired in the air – they weren’t firing at us.”
Mrs Kelvey added: “It was totally unnecessary. We didn’t have any contact from them [Admiral Grigorovich] on our radio.”
The British couple called the UK Coastguard, who then informed the Navy. HMS Tyne then came alongside the yacht, allowing British Navy officials to speak to the couple and make sure they were alright.
They were interviewed by French police when they docked at Cherbourg at around 5pm on Tuesday, having left Lymington on the south coast of England at 4am.
The couple usually spend a couple of months sailing around the Channel Islands and Brittany each summer since retiring in 2023 and buying the boat, said Kelvey.
“We’re shattered, having left at 4 o’clock this morning,” Mrs Kelvey said. “We’re glad it’s over.”
The Bright Future based in Port Solent marina in Portsmouth, was named in a Russian government statement confirming the incident that occurred just after 11am.
Mr and Mrs Kelvey previously kept a blog recording their sailing adventures on the yacht, including that they first found it “nesting unloved at the back of MDL’s Chatham Marina in the Medway river opposite the historic Upnor Castle”.
“Bright Future had been abandoned like the Marie Celeste, with unmade beds, a fridge (not working) full of rusting beer cans and items of clothing left in lockers and strewn around,” a post on the blog read.
“With the help of our, then young, children we undertook a serious deep clean, inside and out, lubricated everything that stood still, following much work Bright Future was revived.”
Royal Navy vessel Mersey tracking the Admiral Grigorovich frigate and Krasnodar submarine on a previous mission (Photo: Ministry of Defence)It is understood that the Admiral Grigorovich – which has previously accompanied Vladimir Putin’s illicit shadow fleet vessels along England’s southern coast – made attempts to alert the British boat that it was in its path by sounding its horn before it fired the shots.
Russia’s defence ministry said the yacht was “following a dangerous course” and that “the frigate’s crew made several attempts to contact the civilian vessel on the international radio channel”.
It said that the “small arms” fire was carried out “pre-emptively” and that the crew on the frigate “acted in strict accordance with international shipping regulations”.
The Russian ship is understood to have been having difficulty controlling its movements, possibly due to an engine problem. Investigations are still ongoing as to the cause of the almost collision.
The UK-registered Bright Future filed a report to British authorities that the Russian vessel had fired warning shots from around 500 yards (457 meters).
HMS Mersey was monitoring the Russian vessel at the time, according to insiders, and a seaboat from HMS Tyne has visited the yacht to gather details and check they are safe.
Military insiders suggested this was not being read as an attack on the UK, but it marks the latest escalation in Russia-UK relations.
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace said the incident showed that “Russia is getting desperate”. “Firing at an innocent yacht is not the actions of a major power. It is the behaviour of a tin-pot bully,” he said.
A Nato official told The i Paper that the alliance was “closely monitoring the situation and is in touch with UK authorities”. Article 5 of the military alliance, which comprises 32 countries including the UK, states that an attack on one country is perceived as an attack by all. It is able to convene emergency meetings when the security of any member is threatened.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed it was investigating the incident.
The incident comes after British forces boarded a Russian shadow fleet tanker, the Smyrtos, in the Channel on Monday. The MoD said the vessel was being used to transport oil funding the war in Ukraine.
Insiders said that today’s event was being viewed as an isolated incident, which is not linked to the Smyrtos interception.
But the shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge described the incident as “very concerning”.
“In three days we have seen a Russian shadow fleet tanker seized, Russian agents exposed at the heart of an attack on the PM and now shots fired by a Russian frigate at a civilian yacht in the Channel. Be in no doubt that Russia poses a direct threat to the UK,” he said.
Tan Dhesi MP, Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee, said this showed the UK was in an “deeply dangerous world” and needed to resolve its defence spending fiasco.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UK announced 70 new sanctions targeting Russia’s shadow fleet, military supply chains and financing networks.
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