British PM Boris Johnson has defended the UK navy’s response to Russia firing warning shots at one of its warships in the Black Sea.
British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said that no shots were fired at the HMS Defender
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday said it was “entirely right” for a British warship to travel through the waters off Crimea amid an ongoing diplomatic spat with Russia.
Moscow has threatened to drop bombs on foreign vessels that enter waters close to the territory annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Johnson said Britain would defy the Kremlin, insisting that it was “entirely right” to “pursue freedom of navigation in the way that we did.”
“I think it was wholly appropriate to use international waters, and, by the way, the important point is that we don’t recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea,” he said in televised remarks.
Johnson’s comments came after Russia claimed yesterday that one of its coast guard patrol vessels had fired warning shots at the British destroyer HMS Defender.
