A tense encounter between a Russian warship and a small Norwegian fishing boat occurred within Norway’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) during a live-fire military exercise earlier this month.
The incident took place on September 12th, 2024, as Russia’s Northern Fleet conducted the “Ocean-2024” strategic exercise in the maritime border area north of the Varanger Peninsula, according to The Barents Observer.
The crew aboard the 15-metre boat Ragnhild Kristine reported being confronted by the Admiral Levchenko, a 163-metre anti-submarine destroyer. The ship ordered the fishing vessel to leave the area.
“This is Russian warship, you need to leave the area,” the chief mate, Øystein Orten, recalled hearing over the radio as the crew was retrieving their longlines from the water. Despite the warning, Orten refused to move, telling FriFagbevegelse, “It was out of the question for us to move. We had longlines to take onboard.”
As the Admiral Levchenko approached, it reportedly blew its horn for 15 seconds before allegedly firing a warning shot into the water. “It was a powerful blast, our boat was shaking,” said Orten. The Norwegian fishermen then decided to sail west, with the destroyer following them until they were out of the danger zone.
While the Norwegian Coast Guard confirmed there was communication between the fishing boat and the Russian warship, they could not verify the firing of a warning shot.
Lieutenant Colonel Vegard Finberg, spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told The Barents Observer, “There is, however, nothing from our observations that can confirm any warning shot,” though he acknowledged the fishermen might have experienced the situation differently.
Norwegian fishermen, including Orten, have repeatedly raised concerns over Russia’s naval exercises disrupting their activities. “Norwegian authorities must put pressure on Russia so that they stop sabotaging Norwegian fisheries and shipping,” Orten said in his interview with FriFagbevegelse, calling for Russia to move its firing ranges further from Norwegian waters.
Image Neill Rush, Trafalgar 200th Anniversary from Los Barcos de Eugenio – Eugenio´s Warships, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
“Do you see Torpedo Boats?”
I see the need for some Norwegian T26s!!
Dogger Bank incident 1905. Very good.
Yes, I was thinking that. Russian navy has form for this and could trigger a wider conflict by being trigger happy.
Daft and not surprisingly unprofessional.
They’d have to hit something, which would be a first.
That’s funny. I once read a book about Tsushima and I especially liked the depiction of the ill natured Russian admiral who would constantly get angry and throw his binoculars into the sea so they had to have a decent supply of spares. He also would shout colourful language at ships in the fleet based on the characteristics of their captains. My personal favourite obscenity was the accusation that one of the ships was, “a slutty old tramp.”
I’m not sure that communication would pass muster these days but it was funny.
Any aerials sticking out the Fishing boat? 😏
No but there might have been something on the ‘Long’ lines?
This is an interesting one and actually in this case there is no specific hard law in the 1982 UNCLOS But the US, UK and most western nations actually agree with the Russian interpretation. In that there is no international law to stop one nation undertaking military exercises on another’s EEZ. So in reality the West and NATO could not really challenge Russias right to issue a notice to Mariners and notice to aviators in Norways EEZ and us methods to keep a civilian vessel from stumbling into a live fire exercise. It would fall straight into chinas hands if they did, as china has ever since 1982 been trying to interpret the EEZ that they can stop other militaries from entering and using their EEZ.
Surely the issue here is that the Russians seem to have tried to use force to remove the fishing boat from the firing range?
I don’t know what the specific rules are, but surely it is the responsibility of the firing warships not to fire if there are vessels in danger, not that of the vessels not to be there?
They had every right to be there, it’s the attitude towards the civilians that matters.
Indeed and I suspect any discussion will be, what is the appropriate way to keep a civilian vessel from putting itself in extreme danger…blasting it with fog horns ? no one seems to be sure about a warning shot. I suspect this is one of those things that NATO will not want to be too pushy about, because just maybe one day they may want to be robust with a Chinese or Russian vessel in the same sort of situation.
In reality the Norwegian fishing vessel captain was being a F%cking idiot in ignoring a Notice to Mariners about a live fire exercise.
There is not I believe any specific internationally agreed rules on how navies deal with bloodyminded fishermen..but I know the RN is very responsible and patient and likes to use pretty red flags and lights or in fully apoplectic mod, coloured flares to highlight they are there and think your being a total idiot and ignoring the pretty flags…with admiralty advice on accident straying into a life fire, is a bit interesting and basically boils down to stay on a set course until your out ( unless navigational hazards prevent) and duck if nasty stuff comes your way and call the coastguard to tell them the nasty RN is firing things at you. But what the RN never do is Fire live rounds if they see a civilian vessel enter the live fire exercise..and I think they use an 8 NM safety radius with air cover for spotting idiot who don’t keep up with NtMs. Russia seems to be a bit more….shall we say robust…not sure what the US are like as never sailed that way so not bothered knowing.
I’ve sailed through Lulworth Ranges, but that’s it.
Just check if there’s firing that day, if there isn’t you’re free to go.
Naval firing exercises are probably a bit more complicated than that, but I imagine the principles are the same.
It sounds like in this case the fishing boat was genuinely unable to quickly get out of the way and the destroyer commander was rude and inconsiderate.
Equally, anyone who works professionally with the sea ought to get that sort of thing nailed down and it was downright stupid to find yourself in the middle of a Russian naval exercise.
P.s what the hell does an Anti Submarine Destroyer do?
Anti submarine destroyer is just now Russians like to name some ships.
There isn’t really any international rules on ship classes.
They could call it an anti submarine turtle headed warbler With boom boom sticks frigate destroyer and that would be it.
Boom Boom sticks destroyer is more suited to the Type 055s, isn’t it?
I dunno, have you seen the size of the boom boom stick containers on the fore deck? Not great visibility in the top image but there are some better ones for comparison on Navy Lookout’s twitter page. I’d say it has a reasonable claim to the title
Indeed and I suspect any discussion will be, what is the appropriate way to keep a civilian vessel from putting itself in extreme danger…blasting it with fog horns ? no one seems to be sure about a warning shot. I suspect this is one of those things that NATO will not want to be too pushy about, because just maybe one day they may want to be robust with a Chinese or Russian vessel in the same sort of situation.
In reality the Norwegian fishing vessel captain was being a F%cking idiot in ignoring a Notice to Mariners about a live fire exercise.
There is not I believe any specific internationally agreed rules on how navies deal with bloodyminded fishermen..but I know the RN is very responsible and patient and likes to use pretty red flags and lights or in fully apoplectic mod, coloured flares to highlight they are there and think your being a total idiot and ignoring the pretty flags…with admiralty advice on accidentally straying into a life fire being a bit interesting and basically boils down to stay on a set course until your out ( unless navigational hazards prevent) and duck if nasty stuff comes your way and call the coastguard to tell them the nasty RN is firing things at you. But what the RN never do is Fire live rounds if they see a civilian vessel enter the live fire exercise..and I think they use an 8 NM safety radius with air cover for spotting idiots who don’t keep up with NtMs. Russia seems to be a bit more….shall we say robust…not sure what the US are like as never sailed that way so not bothered knowing.