From our particular envoy aboard the « Atlantic 2 »,
Its imposing metal construction is displayed on the screens. This Tuesday, the Atlantique 2the maritime patrol plane of the National Navy during which we occurred, was flying on train over the English Channel when its electro-optical ball outfitted with highly effective thermal cameras recorded the actions of a Russian frigate off the English coast. “We had been conscious of the presence of this navy vessel in worldwide waters, however we didn’t have any particular directives for this mission,” assures Lieutenant Baptiste. However as we come throughout it, we take the chance to collect info. »
This imposing 125 meter lengthy ship is the frigate Amiral Grigorovitch of the Russian military. A ship that we are going to study on the finish of the day that he was involved in an incident just a few hours earlier south of the Isle of Wight, simply exterior British territorial waters. On board theAtlantic 2no point out of those warning photographs fired by the frigate at a British sailboat which was “dangerously” approaching it, based on the Russian Ministry of Protection. Had been the French troopers conscious of it or had been they unaware of it? We cannot know.
A frigate escorting the Russian ghost fleet
Nonetheless, the presence of Russian navy ships within the Channel raises questions, even when it’s not a shock to anybody. In Could, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported that l’Amiral Grigorovicth had been patrolling off the British coast for nearly two months, escorting within the English Channel tankers belonging to the Russian ghost fleet. Just a few weeks earlier, the British navy had deployed a number of patrol boats to observe the Russian ship, saying there was “not a single day” when the frigate was not “carefully monitored.” »
Within the Channel, a veritable freeway of the ocean, theAmiral Grigorovitch is subsequently identified for escorting Russian-flagged ships “to and from the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic.” » On Sunday, British forces, in collaboration with France, additionally intercepted in the Channel the tanker Smyrtossuspected of belonging to the Russian ghost fleet.
Rising tensions between London and Moscow
It was “the primary operation of this sort” after London licensed the boarding of those ships by its armed forces on the finish of March. If the British Ministry of Protection doesn’t point out a hyperlink between this interception and the “remoted” incident of this Tuesday – the British Prime Minister even talking of an incident “no extra worrying than that” – it testifies to rising tensions between London and Moscow against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
“Russia is clearly exhibiting aggression throughout Europe,” Keir Starmer declared to the British channel GB Information, making certain that he had raised the topic with the G7 leaders assembly this Tuesday in Evian.
