Keir Starmer calls Russian warning shots near British yacht 'deeply concerning'

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday said the firing of warning shots by a Russian frigate near a civilian yacht close to the British territorial waters was "deeply concerning" and “reckless”. Stramer said that “it should not have happened”, but Russian action was not “sinister”. A retired British couple who were on board called the experience “surreal”. The Russian Defence Ministry said that the yacht was on a “dangerous approach".

This comes as British Special Forces successfully seized the Russian "shadow fleet" oil tanker, MV Smyrtos, on June 14, 2026. This was the first time the United Kingdom had acted independently to board and detain a vessel from the Russian-sanctioned network. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed that the shooting incident was not linked to the seizure of tankers. Starmer said it “doesn’t take away from the fact that clearly Russia is aggressive across Europe”.

However, the couple Jane and Alan Kelvey said that they were not on a collision course, and the Russian statement was just all “lies”. Jane Kelvey told BBC: "[The warship] gave out five blasts on their horn, which means 'have you seen us?' “We immediately turned two degrees to port so they could see we had made a deliberate change of course, which meant we had seen them”. She further added that it wasn't aimed at them, but towards the air.

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"What happened in the Channel was deeply concerning. It was reckless. The MoD have done an assessment. Their assessment is that the Russian vessel was drifting, and they were warning shots, and therefore it is important in that context," said Starmer.

The incident involved a 40-foot British civilian yacht named Bright Future, which was on the path of Admiral Grigorovich, a 409-foot-long Russian frigate. The two were transiting close to one another, according to the British Ministry of Defence. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the crew of the Admiral Grigorovich spotted that the yacht was on a collision course with the ship. The crew claimed that they tried to make contact with the vessel, which was about 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, outside the UK's territorial waters.