British Couple Recount Russian Warship Warning Shots

“It was surreal, and my immediate, my immediate reaction was, I need to get on the V.H.F. and call Solent Coastguard and tell them what this Russian warship is doing.” “It’s a bit embarrassing, really. We only came here to go on holiday.” “As we were coming about halfway across the channel, we saw in the distance a vessel. It wasn’t showing on our A.I.S., so we couldn’t identify it. And as we got closer, we saw that it was a warship. And as we got closer still, we saw it had Cyrillic lettering along the side. We were about five, three —” “Four or five hundred.” “Four or five hundred meters off. As we approached, we — they gave out five blasts on their horn, which means: ‘Have you seen us?’ We immediately turned two degrees to port, so that they could see we’ve made a deliberate change of course, which meant we had seen them, and then a minute or so later, they gave another five blasts on their horn, immediately followed by four to five small arms fire, that wasn’t aimed at us.”