Russian warship fires shots at yacht in English Channel

The retirees, aged 68 and 70, had set off from Lymington, Hampshire, at 4am Tuesday and were headed for the French port city of Cherbourg. They were sailing in the Channel, about 20 nautical miles south off the Isle of Wight, when gunshots rang out.

Military sources told The Telegraph that the incident took place outside UK territorial waters during foggy conditions, and that the Russian vessel had issued several warnings before firing.

The Kelveys said visibility had been “reasonable” and that they had spotted the larger vessel ahead before making a plan to pass the ship on its starboard side with a berth of 500 metres.

They said the warship then sounded its horn five times, so they changed course by two degrees in an attempt to increase the distance between them.

Mrs Kelvey told the BBC the Russians “didn’t send up any flares, they didn’t try to radio us” and that “it wasn’t an incident until the gunfire started”.

“They didn’t look to us like they were adrift and we were definitely not on a collision course,” she said. 

“There was absolutely no problem as far as we were concerned. We were just going to go sailing straight past them … as soon as they sent the five blasts on the horn, we took [evasive action], not that any was necessary, but then they did the following five and and then the gunfire.

“They’re blaming us and as far as we’re concerned, we were blameless.”

The couple added that they did not know Admiral Grigorovich was a military vessel because it was not broadcasting its GPS location.