A British couple has described the harrowing moment a Russian naval vessel launched warning flares across their yacht’s bow in the Black Sea, an incident they believe could have ended in disaster. The couple, who have asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, were sailing near the Kerch Strait when the warship, identified as the Vasily Bykov, a Project 22160 patrol ship, closed in at high speed. The Russian crew issued no radio warnings, they said.
Instead, flares screeched overhead, lighting up the night sky and forcing them to alter course violently. ‘It felt like a declaration of war,’ the husband told this newspaper. ‘We thought they were going to open fire.
My wife was in tears.’ The Kerch Strait, a chokepoint between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, has been a flashpoint since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Moscow routinely asserts control over the waterway, often harassing commercial vessels.
What makes this case different is that the target was a private yacht with two civilians aboard. Leaked internal reports from a Western intelligence agency, seen by this reporter, confirm that the Russian ship was operating in international waters at the time. The same documents reveal a pattern of ‘aggressive patrolling’ by the Vasily Bykov in recent months, including similar incidents with at least three other vessels.
The couple’s ordeal began on the evening of 23 October. They had chartered a 40-foot sailing yacht from a Turkish port and were heading towards the Sea of Azov for a leisurely cruise. About 10 nautical miles off the coast of Crimea, near Cape Tarkhankut, they spotted the warship on radar.
‘We assumed it was a routine patrol,’ the wife said. ‘Then it changed course directly towards us.’ Within minutes, the warship was within 1,000 metres, its searchlight blinding them.
‘Suddenly, there were explosions in the air,’ the husband recounted. ‘Flares burning magnesium bright. They passed 30 metres over our mast.
We could feel the heat.’ The couple scrambled to radio a distress call but found their communications jammed. They turned the yacht around and fled at full throttle.
The Russian vessel pursued them for 15 minutes before breaking off. The Foreign Office confirmed it is aware of the incident and is ‘urgently seeking clarification from Russian authorities.’ A spokesman said: ‘We take any threat to British citizens very seriously.
’ But behind the diplomatic language, there is fury. This incident comes weeks after Moscow tightened restrictions on foreign vessels in the Black Sea, citing ‘security concerns’ linked to the conflict in Ukraine. Critics say it is another step in Russia’s slow strangulation of Ukraine’s maritime access.
The couple are now back in the UK, shaken but unharmed. They are calling for a formal protest and a review of travel warnings. ‘We are not spies, we are not provocateurs,’ the husband said.
‘We were just ordinary people on holiday. And we nearly died.’ This newspaper has seen satellite images of the exact location, timestamped at the time of the incident.
They show no other vessels in the vicinity. The Russian Navy has not commented. If confirmed, this latest act of Russian brinkmanship will test the limits of Western tolerance.
For two British citizens caught in the crossfire, the scars will last a lifetime.
