2021 Black Sea incident
Open-knowledge reference entry
The 2021 Black Sea incident was a diplomatic incident between Russia and the United Kingdom involving the British destroyer HMS Defender while it transited from Odesa, Ukraine, to Batumi, Georgia. The Minister of Defence of Russia stated that a patrol boat fired warning shots, while a Su-24 aircraft dropped bombs in the vicinity of the British vessel. Defender reached Batumi three days later.
Background
In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula. The British government does not recognise the annexation of Crimea.
Ukraine–United Kingdom naval agreement
On 21 June 2021, the United Kingdom and Ukraine signed a naval cooperation agreement onboard HMS Defender, whilst in port at Odesa, Ukraine. Under the terms of the agreement, the United Kingdom would transfer two refurbished Sandown-class minehunters to Ukraine and produce eight small missile warships for the country. The United Kingdom would also construct a new naval base on the Black Sea as the primary fleet base for the Ukrainian Navy and a base on the Sea of Azov. The agreement also provided for the sale of missiles to Ukraine, and for training and support for these.
HMS Defender
On 23 June 2021, the United Kingdom's HMS Defender undertook a "freedom of navigation patrol" through the disputed waters around the Crimean Peninsula.
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This entry incorporates text from “2021 Black Sea incident” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.