DISINFO: Russia fired warning shots against the British warship breaching its border

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

AI translations:

DISINFO: Russia fired warning shots against the British warship breaching its border

SUMMARY

Last June, Russia announced that the forces of the Black Sea Fleet and Russian border guards had fired warning shots after a British warship breached the country's border off the coast of Crimea.

The Russian defence confirmed that the British destroyer Defender had breached the country's borders and infiltrated Russian waters for a distance of three kilometres near Cape Fiolent on the southern Crimean coast. But after warning shots were fired at it from the sea and the air, it quickly left Russian waters.

RESPONSE

Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the HMS Defender incident near the Crimean coast of Ukraine on 23 June 2021. The article’s message is also consistent with pro-Kremlin narratives about the illegal annexation of Crimea.

On 23 June, the British warship HMS Defender was in transit on a commonly followed route using an internationally recognised traffic separation corridor in the Black Sea inside Ukrainian territorial waters to Georgia, where the destroyer was due to dock.

It is not true that the British ship trespassed into Russian territorial waters. This is a manipulation on the issue of Crimea, a territory forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014 in a referendum that was not recognised by the UN, nor the EU, or the UK, or any international body.

The UK Ministry of Defence also denied the claims that the HMS Defender has been fired on.

See similar disinformation cases about this incident such as UK Destroyer entered Russian waters and only left after warning shots or about the occupation of Crimea such as the Crimea issue is finally closed following the results of the referendum or that the alleged coup d'etat of Maidan caused a referendum that united Crimea with Russia; or that UK warship presence in the Black Sea was a NATO provocation; or that a BBC journalist confirmed the deliberate entrance in Russian waters.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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