US and Britain behind Black Sea ‘provocation’, Putin says

Russia’s president said a US reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with a British destroyer last week when the ship sailed through the Black Sea

Episode was the latest to raise tensions between Russia and the West since Russia‘s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014

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Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:14am, 1 Jul 2021Updated: 8:11am, 1 Jul 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that a US reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with a British destroyer last week when the ship sailed through the Black Sea in what he described as a “provocation” to test Moscow's response.

Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of Britain's Defender on June 23 to force it from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. Britain insisted its ship was not fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters.

The episode was the latest to raise tensions between Russia and the West since Russia's annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a move not recognised by most countries but one that gives it access to a long Black Sea coast.

British destroyer HMS Defender arrives at the port of Batumi, Georgia on Saturday. Photo: Georgian Interior Ministry via AP

The US Defence Department had no immediate comment on Wednesday on Putin's claim that one of its aircraft was with the British ship last week.

Asked if the events could have triggered “World War III”, Putin responded that the West would not risk a full-scale conflict.

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