US 'behind provocation' with British destroyer

The Kremlin on Sunday claimed that the United States had masterminded provocations that saw the British destroyer HMS Defender enter Russian waters off the Crimean Peninsula last month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia, which fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the warship to chase it out of Black Sea waters off Crimea, could have sunk the ship.

After the incident on June 23, Russia summoned the British ambassador in Moscow for a formal diplomatic rebuke after the warship breached what the Kremlin says are Russia's territorial waters but which some Western countries, including the United Kingdom, say belong to Ukraine.

"I think our intelligence certainly knows who made a decision there in the situation with the British destroyer," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on state television. "But certainly I think such operations are basically planned by senior partners from overseas."

He said Washington and London had planned the episode, saying the incident was "a well-planned provocation" and that Putin's reaction had made it clear that any repetition would provoke a response.

"It is obvious that the reaction will of course be tough," Peskov said of the Russian response to any future incidents.

London claimed the destroyer was conducting an "innocent passage" through Ukrainian territorial waters. According to the UK, the Russian military did not fire any shots at the destroyer but conducted "a gunnery exercise".

Tensions are running high as Ukraine and NATO countries hold military drills in the Black Sea, monitored by Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Peskov said NATO was a destabilizing element that led to confrontation, but that Russia remained open to dialogue with the body.

"It is clear that no provocations should be repeated. The response will be in accordance with the charter that says－to sink (an intruding vessel)," he said.

Reconnaissance aircraft

He also noted that Putin had claimed that a US reconnaissance aircraft that took off from the Greek island of Crete was operating in concert with the British ship on an apparent mission to monitor the Russian military's response to the British destroyer.

Russia's Defense Ministry reported on June 23 that the Black Sea Fleet, with border guards from the Federal Security Service, halted a violation of the state border by the destroyer Defender off Crimea's Fiolent Cape.

The Russian Defense Ministry slammed the UK destroyer's operations as a gross violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and urged the British side to investigate the warship crew's actions.

Agencies via Xinhua contributed to this story.