Thursday, December 05, 2024 - A Russian warship has fired at a German army helicopter over the Baltic Sea.
The crew of the Russian ship fired signal ammunition at the
military aircraft, the German Press Agency in Brussels reported. The Bundeswehr
helicopter had been on a reconnaissance flight.
It comes amid rising tensions in recent weeks between the
Kremlin and NATO countries after UK and US missiles were used
by Ukraine to attack Russia. Vladimir Putin has since
warned that both nations are now "directly involved" in the
conflict.
Germany has spent the past year reorganising its military to
get it "ready for war", in the words of Defence Minister Boris
Pistorius, who has set up a new cyber and information branch in addition to the
traditional navy, army and air force.
Signal ammunition is typically only used by vessels in
emergency situations. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who confirmed
the incident at a NATO conference but did not state when it took place, said
many Russian ships in the Baltic Sea had been involved in circumventing
sanctions.
She added that security measures surrounding undersea
pipelines and data cables had been increased, and cited recent attacks on
infrastructure in the area. Last month, two fibre optic cables in the Baltic
Sea were damaged, including one between Sweden and Lithuania, and the other
between Finland and Germany. Investigations have centred on a Chinese vessel
called Yi Peng 3, which is said to have passed through the affected areas at
the time.
On Thursday, Nov. 28, Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf
Kristersson said that authorities were seeking "clarity"
from China about what had happened. A similar incident last year saw
a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia severely damaged.
Russia has also been accused in recent months of jamming GPS
signals in the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean. In March, a
RAF plane carrying then-Defence Secretary Grant Shapps had its GPS
signal interrupted while flying near Russian territory.
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