The Russian war frigate Admiral Grigorovich reportedly fired warning shots at a British-flagged yacht in the English Channel on Tuesday, in an incident that the UK Ministry of Defence is investigating, and which occurs at a time of high tension between London and Moscow. The war in Ukraine and the activities of the so-called ghost fleet of tankers at the Kremlin's service have maximally strained relations between the two capitals, as already happened in 2018 following the attempted assassination on British territory of former spy Sergei Skripal by agents of Vladimir Putin.

While the U.S. Navy pursued an old, dilapidated oil tanker from Venezuela into the Atlantic in recent days, the fugitive vessel kept changing its identity. Formerly known as Beautiful 1The tanker was renamed as MarineraIt no longer claimed to be from Guyana. Its new flag, hastily painted on the hull by the same crew, was the Russian tricolor.