Are the US and UK lying about the incident in the Black Sea?

By Boyko Nikolov

PANAGYURISHTE, BM, ($1=1.64 leva) – For the past two days, the United States and Britain have denied that a Russian warship fired warning shots at HMS Defender in Black Sea waters. The incident took place on June 23, when the HMS Defender was in the “red line” of the territorial waters of Crimea. We recall that Russia annexed Crimea, and only Moscow recognized this territory as Russian. For Moscow, Crimea is an annexed territory for the rest of the world, including the United States, Britain, and Ukraine – it is a Russian occupation.

What does Washington say? On June 24, Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby held his traditional briefing, answering dozens of questions on several topics, including the incident between a Russian warship and the British HMS Defender in the Black Sea. Asked by reporters about the behavior of the Russian military and their warning shots fired at the British ship, John F. Kirby replied: “Well, I would ask you to go back and look at what the British Ministry of Defense said yesterday. I think they, and this is really for them to speak to, but they were very public about the fact that there were no shots fired as a warning to HMS Defender. That it was simply Russian disinformation, as yet another example of the Russians trying to spin events to suit their narrative. It just didn’t happen.”

What does London say? The British Ministry of Defense confirmed in a press release and a tweet in the official profile of the ministry that warning shots were not fired by the Russian warship on the HMS Defender in the Black Sea. According to London, there were shots, but they were not warning, but part of an exercise of the Russian Navy.

What does Moscow say? Moscow says HMS Defender has been on the “red line” in Russian territorial waters (i.e., Crimean territorial waters – ed.) And has warned the British ship to change course. However, the British ship did not comply with the order to change course. As a result, a Russian patrol ship fired a warning shot, and later Russian Air Force planes dropped bombs near the British ship. (BulgarianMilitary.com has a source in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation who claims that the bombs were high-explosive and were dropped by Su-24 – ed.).

There was a journalist onboard the HMS Defender

It turns out that onboard the British HMS Defender was a BBC correspondent – Jonathan Beale, who made a phone call to his office during the incident. The journalist told his colleagues that at least “20 Russian jets buzzing the ship at the same time – warning shots fired out of range.”

For the readers of BulgarianMilitary.com, we publish the telephone conversation and the rage of the British journalist.

Later, Russian media circulated various videos, claiming that they were from the incident between the British ship in the Black Sea. However, a video shows warning shots fired by Russian sailors. The video is said to reflect and refute US and British claims that there were no warning shots.

I.e. – a video shows artillery fire (I don’t know if this video is related to the incident), and a British journalist claims to have been present at the time of the incident and confirms the artillery fire by the Russians.

The facts

We can point out the following fact – there were shots. This was confirmed by the journalist from the BBC and the comment of the British Ministry of Defense. Whether these shots were aimed at HMS Defender or were part of Russian teaching – we do not know.

But if we analyze the message of the British Ministry of Defense we see the following dependence – first, London claims that there were no warning shots. Most likely after the call of the British correspondent to the BBC office, the ministry confirmed the shots, but with the stipulation that they were part of an exercise.

A Pentagon spokesman diplomatically shifted responsibility to the British, but said it was “Russian propaganda”.

Whether the United States and Britain are lying about the Black Sea incident is up to you. If we receive another video, audio, or proof of one or the other statement, we will provide it.

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