The Russian Ministry of Defense urgently called the military attaché at the Turkish Embassy in connection with the incident in the Aegean Sea. On the morning of December 13, a Russian patrol ship opened warning fire due to the approach of a Turkish vessel

Russian patrol ship "Smetlivy". Archive photo (Photo: Alexey Pavlishak/TASS)

The Russian Ministry of Defense urgently called the Turkish military attache after a Turkish seiner approached the Russian patrol ship Smetlivy in the Aegean Sea at a distance of less than 1 km. The Ministry of Defense said that the Russian ship opened warning fire in the direction of the Turkish ship, as the crew of the seiner did not respond to the warnings of the Russian sailors.

According to the Russian military department, the watch service of the Russian ship discovered the ship at a distance of about a kilometer at 9:03 Moscow time.

“Despite numerous attempts by the Smetlivy, the crew of the Turkish seiner did not make radio contact with the Russian sailors and did not respond to special visual signals from the light semaphore and flares,” ministry representatives indicated.

When the ships approached at 600 meters, the Smetlivy used small arms “in the direction of the Turkish ship’s movement at a distance of guaranteed non-hit.” After this, the seiner abruptly changed course. In connection with the incident, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov called the military attaché at the Turkish Embassy.

Ankara has not yet commented on the incident.

Russian-Turkish relations worsened after the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber on November 24 on the Syrian-Turkish border. Ankara said the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace and did not respond to warnings. Moscow denied these accusations. After the incident, Russia imposed economic sanctions against Turkey.

The Ministry of Defense summoned the Turkish attaché due to the incident in the Aegean Sea