Russian warship ‘fires at’ German helicopter: NATO reconnaissance aircraft incident over Baltic Sea sparks new conflict escalation fears

A Russian warship has fired warning shots at a German helicopter conducting patrols over the Baltic Sea, it has been reported.

The crew of the Russian ship fired signal munitions, the German news agency in Brussels has learned.

According to the German newspaper Bild, the warning shots were fired at the NATO reconnaissance aircraft that was conducting surveillance in the area.

Signal munitions are more likely to be used for warning shots than for attacks, but incidents like this are a sign that NATO and Russia are growing closer.

It follows a dramatic escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the past two weeks, with both Britain and the US authorizing Kiev to fire Western missiles across the border.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned the incident at a NATO meeting but gave no further details.

However, a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense has so far not been able to confirm the reports about the firing of signal munitions.

NATO is currently conducting enhanced surveillance in the Baltic Sea to prevent hybrid attacks on pipelines and data cables by Russia and its supporters.

The Baltic Sea is bordered by eight NATO countries and Russia.

Since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, there have been at least three incidents of possible sabotage of the approximately 40 telecommunications cables and critical gas pipelines that run along the relatively shallow seabed.

“NATO is increasing patrols,…allies are investing in innovative technologies that can help better secure these assets,” Commander Arlo Abrahamson, spokesman for NATO’s Allied Maritime Command, said earlier.

But the ease with which a ship’s anchor can cut through a cable, combined with the often treacherous conditions at sea, makes actually preventing such attacks virtually impossible.

After firing warning shots today, former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev declared that the West has crossed “all red lines” and is now “at war with Russia.”

Medvedev, a close ally of Putin and now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said any Ukrainian attack on Russian territory with Western weapons would be met with a response.

‘It will not go unnoticed… It will change the rules of battle – it is proof that NATO and Washington and other participants in the alliance are participating not just in a hybrid war, but a war in every sense of the word against our country.

“The negotiations are still a long way off, events like this could push those negotiations back even further,” he told Al-Arabiya in Saudi Arabia.

“Any attack on Russia is unequivocally unacceptable. What happened was a crossing of all red lines.’

It comes as the former MI6 chief admitted that Britain must ‘face the fact’ that the Kremlin believes it is at war with the West, not just Ukraine.

Sir Richard Dearlove, who headed Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, told Sky News this week: ‘(Polish Prime Minister) Donald Tusk has called it a pre-war situation. I think he’s wrong. I think it’s a real war.’

He then justified his statement by citing examples of Russian hybrid warfare against countries across Europe, involving sabotage plots, cyber attacks and “very aggressive moves.”

Today’s incident is also the latest in a number of close talks between Russian and NATO forces.

In September, a Russian plane came dangerously close to an American fighter jet that was supposed to intercept them off the coast of Alaska.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected and tracked four Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on September 23.

NORAD deployed four F-16s and a reconnaissance aircraft to escort the Russian formation through the zone, a spokesperson told Alaska Public Media.

Video of the interaction shows a Russian jet flying past an American plane and quickly veering left and right.

“The behavior of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional and put everyone at risk – not what you would see in a professional air force,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot.

Meanwhile, a Russian fighter jet crashed an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea in March last year.

Drone camera footage shows the terrifying confrontation as a Su-27 jet approaches from behind, locks on its propeller and dumps fuel over it in international airspace.

The excerpt was released on the back of a report that the Kremlin’s “highest levels” had signed off on about the jets’ aggressive behavior during the interception.

The incident marked the first direct confrontation between Russia and the US since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

This is a breaking news story – more to come