British Warships would go through disputed waters around Crimea again, a UK cabinet minister said after Russia accused a British destroyer of breaching Russian waters.
Russia said on June 23 that it fired shots and dropped bombs in the path of the UK’s HMS Defender near Cape Fiolent, a landmark on the southern coast of Crimea near the port of Sevastopol, headquarters of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea fleet.
Russian media quoted the defense ministry as saying the ship ventured as much as three kilometers (two miles) inside Russian waters before leaving.
The UK’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs George Eustice said on June 24 that the British warship was taking a “logical route.
“Under international law, you can take the closest, fastest route from one point to another. HMS Defender was passing through Ukrainian waters, I think on the way to Georgia, and that was the logical route for it to take,” he told Sky News.
Asked if the government would do it again, Eustice replied: “Of course, yes.
“We never accepted the annexation of Crimea, these were Ukrainian territorial waters.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 24 that the incident was “a deliberate and premeditated provocation” and threatened that “no options can be ruled out.”
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