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Black Sea tension before Sea Breeze exercises
Summary
A look back at the Black Sea on 29 June 2021, a day after large naval drills began and days after a clash involving a British destroyer.
What was happening in the Black Sea on 29 June 2021? Military exercises were under way, and diplomatic tension over a recent incident had not eased.
The Sea Breeze naval exercises started in the Black Sea on 28 June 2021. They were reported as the largest in the exercises' history.
The HMS Defender incident
The drills followed an incident days earlier. On 23 June 2021, Russia's Defence Ministry said a Russian Navy patrol ship had fired shots and a Su-24 attack aircraft had dropped bombs in the path of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender. It said the ship had reportedly entered Russian-claimed territorial waters near Crimea.
The UK Ministry of Defence rejected that account. It said the Russian activity was part of a military exercise in the area and denied that any shots or bombs had been directed at the British ship.
Warnings and responses
On 24 June 2021, Russia warned the United Kingdom that it would bomb British vessels if the Royal Navy took any further provocative action in the Black Sea. Moscow had earlier summoned the British ambassador over the incident.
The UK said the vessel had been in Ukrainian waters and that it was entirely right to use the route. It added that the Royal Navy would always uphold international law and would not accept unlawful interference with innocent passage.
By 29 June 2021, the two positions stood as they had been set out that week: a Russian warning of force against British ships, a UK insistence on its right of passage, and a large naval exercise under way in the same sea.
