A Russian warship has opened fire at a German army helicopter over the Baltic Sea.
Putin’s crew fired signal ammunition at the military aircraft, the German Press Agency in Brussels reported. The Bundeswehr helicopter had been on a reconnaissance flight.
The incident follows rising tensions in recent weeks over the Kremlin and NATO countries after UK and US missiles were fired by Ukraine attacking Russia. This led Vladimir Putin to warn that the nations were now “directly” involved in the war, reports the Mirror.
Signal ammunition is often only used by vessels in emergency situations. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who confirmed the attack at a NATO conference. However, she did not reveal when it took place and added that Russian ships in the Baltic Sea had been involved in circumventing sanctions.
She claimed hat security measures had been increased in surrounding undersea pipelines and data cables, and cited recent attacks on infrastructure in the area. In November, two fibre optic cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged – 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, Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson said that Swedish authorities were seeking “clarity” from China about what happened. A similar incident last year saw a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia severely damaged.
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