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Black sea crisis: You can’t win this war, Putin warns UK

Published

5 years ago

June 30, 2021

President of Russia, Vladimir Putin has warned UK’s government that it can’t win a war against Russia after both countries forces clashed in the Black Sea.

Responding to last week’s incident involving Britain’s HMS Defender near Sevastopol, the Russian leader said anyone provoking his country “know full well that they can’t win in that war”.

“We are on our land. We’re fighting for ourselves and our future,” he said.

This is Putin’s starkest warning yet to Western government after the HMS Defender came under warning shots from a Russian jets off the coast of Crimea.

Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender on Wednesday to force her out of an area near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Britain denied that account, insisting its ship wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters.

Speaking Wednesday during a marathon live call-in show, Putin said the jet was monitoring the Russian military response to the British destroyer.

He added that Moscow was aware of the US intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.

The UK, like most of the world, recognises Crimea as part of Ukraine despite the peninsula’s annexation by Russia.

Russia denounced the Defenders move as a provocation and warned that next time it could fire to hit intruding warships if they again try to test Russian military resolve.

This comes as Russian jets harassed a Dutch frigate after it sailed through international waters near the Ukrainian coast.

Fighters armed with air-to-surface missile swooped over the HNLMS Eversten in an incident that lasted five hours last Thursday, the Dutch defence ministry said.

The warship also had its onboard electronic systems jammed.Dutch defense minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten said the “aggressive act” would “needlessly increase the change of accidents”