Russian and British forces square off in the Black Sea
Russia claims to have fired warning shots at a British destroyer in disputed waters off Crimea
THE LAST time that Russia fired on a British warship was in 1919, when a Bolshevik submarine torpedoed a destroyer in the Gulf of Finland. The last time it happened in the Black Sea was during the Crimean war over 165 years ago. So it was a surprise when Russia declared that it had not only fired warning shots at HMS Defender, a British destroyer passing through Crimean waters on June 23rd, but had also dropped bombs in its path.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Crimea and punishment”
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