‘We don’t want world war three’: yacht couple call for calm after Russian warning shots

Alan and Jane Kelvey. The couple dispute Russian claims that their yacht was on a ‘dangerous approach’. Photograph: Jane Kelvey View image in fullscreen Alan and Jane Kelvey. The couple dispute Russian claims that their yacht was on a ‘dangerous approach’. Photograph: Jane Kelvey ‘We don’t want world war three’: yacht couple call for calm after Russian warning shots British retirees Jane and Alan Kelvey say they do not want incident in Channel to stop them enjoying their sailing trip UK politics live – latest updates A British woman on a yacht in the Channel near which a Russian warship fired warning shots has told how she does not want the incident to be blown out of proportion, saying: “We don’t want world war three to start because of this.” Jane Kelvey, 69, and her husband, Alan, 70, were on their yacht, Bright Future, travelling from the south coast of England towards France on Tuesday when they came into close contact with the Admiral Grigorovich, a 409ft (125-metre) Russian frigate. Russian warship incident in Channel deeply concerning, says Starmer Read more Jane said the warship fired four or five warning shots that sounded like “a whipcrack. You can tell when a gun’s been fired. You know that noise.” Despite the incident, the retired couple from Buckinghamshire were determined to enjoy their two-month sailing trip, Jane said. “We just don’t want it blown out of all proportion. We don’t want world war three to start because of this, because had it just been the five blasts on their horn, we wouldn’t have reported it, there would have been nothing to report. It was just the gunfire that was a little bit surprising,” she told the Guardian on Wednesday. “I don’t want it to put any other British sailors off either. We all cross the Channel so often, it doesn’t need to be made into a big incident.” The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Russian vessel fired warning shots to prevent a possible collision after making attempts to contact the 40ft (12-metre) British-flagged yacht, which was about 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, outside the UK’s territorial waters. View image in fullscreen The couple and other crew members on Bright Future. Photograph: Jane Kelvey A translation of a statement posted on the Russian defence ministry’s Telegram channel said the yacht had been on a “dangerous approach” and the warning shots were fired after attempts were first made to attract the crew’s attention with signal flares and sound signals. Jane said the Russian statement was untrue. Recounting her version of events, she said: “We were following our course from Lymington to Cherbourg at about five knots, we could see them in the distance. As we got closer, we could see it was a warship. We saw the Cyrillic lettering on the side and assumed it was a Russian warship. “We were in no danger. We were not about to collide with them. They didn’t appear to be adrift, which is what they’re saying, that they had inability to manoeuvre.” Why did a Russian