FACT CHECK: Disinfo: Russian ‘Warning’ Shots at British Warship

On June 23, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that coast guard vessels operating out of illegally occupied Crimea fired “warning” shots at the HMS Defender, a British Royal Navy destroyer in the Black Sea steaming from the Ukrainian port of Odessa to Georgia.

The ministry also claimed that a Russian Su-24 warplane dropped several bombs ahead of the British destroyer in an attempt to divert it further from the coast.

“At 12:06 and 12:08, the border guard patrol ship conducted warning fire. At 12:19, a Su-24M plane carried out preventing bombing (four OFAB-250 bombs) along the route of the guided missile destroyer Defender,” the Russian Defense Ministry statement read, as reported by the Russian state news agency TASS.

According to the ministry, the British navy vessel had been “operating in the northwestern part of the Black Sea” and “crossed the state border of the Russian Federation and moved 3 km into the territorial sea near Cape Fiolent.”

Multiple Russian state media sources, as well as international media outlets, reported these claims.

They are false or misleading.

LINK: https://www.polygraph.info/a/polygraph-fact-check-disinfo-russian-warning-shots-at-british-warship/31324556.html

Видео FACT CHECK: Disinfo: Russian ‘Warning’ Shots at British Warship канала Voice of America