AIBU to think a Russian ship firing in home waters matters?

[Gizzaeycon]

Shouldn’t we all be making a bit more fuss about the fact that a Russian ship fired at a British boat in home waters? That’s a very serious thing to happen, right?

It's almost as if someone wants more money for defence and has worked out a way to get everyone on side....what's a bit of misinformation between 'friends'...

They didn't fire over the yacht. They fired straight up.

I come from a sea faring family. I saw the news on my phone yesterday. I had a completely different view. It was foggy,that's hell at sea when it suddenly whipps up! The older folk in the yacht left Hants at 4 am, admitted to being tired. Russian vessel, tried international radio station alert (doesn't always work) 5 warning blasts,flares,5 more warning blasts, then warning shots fired. It wasn't in British Waters.

I’m not trying to stoke more problems- just trying to stay informed.

Yet you jumped straight into AIBU with a false claim to generate outrage. You are part of the problem.

All military vessels will ward off anything getting too close to them. Also worth bearing in mind Russia is embroiled in an active conflict at the moment where their enemy is constantly lobbing all sorts at their navy in the Black Sea, so they're likely to be in a heightened state of alert/anxiety at the moment even when they're not near the active conflict area and sailing in International Waters.

Well, you could ask MN to change your (I suspect deliberately) misleading post? I loathe Russia and what it is doing both in Ukraine and wider Europe as much as anyone, but making false claims that they fired at a yacht in British waters is simply sinking to their level.

Well there’s still a small question mark in my mind about exactly how normal it was for the Russians to do what they did. Warning shots like that in the Channel are unusual so I don’t see why we should be forced to shut down all debate about it.

22 miles off the UK coast is not in home waters

No need to shut down debate. But please try to ensure what you're saying is factual. You claimed that Russians to fire warning shots over British yachts

Whereas reports state that they fired up in the air.

Misinformation is a massive issue in debate, and we should all be on our guard against it.

I agree.
But firing up in the air is still a way of letting us know they’ve got guns and they’re ready to use them - and the timing of it (just after we’ve declared to the world that we can’t defend ourselves) suggests there could be more to this than a straightforward warning.

I give up. You go ahead, make a mountain out of a molehill. Share misinformation, enjoy the thrill of people responding.

Well there’s still a small question mark in my mind about exactly how normal it was for the Russians to do what they did

Perfectly normal, considering they were unable to hail the yacht on international radio frequencies, sounded their horn five time, fired flares, sounded the horn five more times, and evidently still believed the yacht hadn't acknowledged and changed course.

Bearing in mind they had exhausted all the usual options, what would you suggest they then do instead?

I don't know if warning shots are that unusual. It might be very rare or it might be that it just isn't ever reported in normal circumstances. At first (in my earlier post) I suggested it might just be Russia being a bit petty but reading other posts maybe it isn't even that and is quite normal.
Either way, I don't think it's a declaration of war.

It wasn’t in British waters, it was in Intenational waters.

It was a frigate.
Obviously it had guns.

It is not perfectly normal for a Russian warship to fire warning shots in a busy waterway like the English Channel - not at all.

Limited sailing experience but we were once sailing off the French coast in foggy conditions.

We could hear a large ship, we could smell it (diesel) but we couldn't see it because of the fog. We watched the radar to make sure we were not on intercepting course Cannot understand why this yacht had not spotted the Russian vessel on their radar and already adjusted their course.

Don't apologise for being worried @Gizzaeycon you are meant to just pipe up when it comes to Russia planting fake rent boy stories. There's a big security risk to this country and it's sitting in No 10.

Firing rounds is aggressive end of, and plays no part in any international shipping regulations I've read. 12 years in the merchant navy showed me vessels with sails and warships do some odd things.

Should we be making a fuss? Possibly.

They said they had seen it and weren't expecting to hit it. The ship blew the horn 5 times which they took to mean "have you seen us" and they adjusted their course a bit in order to signal "yes we've seen you". The ship then fired warning shots. Sojce I wasn't there and don't know much about shioping I don't know if the people on the frigate were being overzealous or if the couple in the boat were being complacent. Or a mix of the two. The Russian governments description seems quite overly dramatic though.

I guess I don't mean normal in the sense of happens everyday. More that in the normal course if things someone might think "bit odd they did that/alright mate we've seen you" and it not make any news.

Might be worth bearing in mind the Russian response might in no small way have been conditioned by the losses their navy has suffered at the hands of small uncrewed drone vessels...

Wonder what a USN response might have been in similar circumstances (see USS Cole for refefence)?

smaller vessels have a different idea of close to big ones. I was drifting around on a cargo ship once when a vessel under sail headed straight for us, we had a short chat on the radio were I told them I wasn't going to go anywhere and they passed about 5m clear of us. No way would I have been happy if I'd had power on. I am sure my ship mates at the time would have been very whistle happy at that, luckily no one gave them fire arms.

They weren’t firing naval guns, it was small arms.

This is a story of two old, incompetent sailors, not abiding by maritime law, getting a fright.
They should have their licenses revoked, fucking idiots.

What licenses?