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Russian warships enter English Channel

NATO dismissed the action as within international law.

By Ed Adamczyk
The Russian warship Severemorsk, pictured, is among those in the English Channel. U.S. Navy photo
The Russian warship Severemorsk, pictured, is among those in the English Channel. U.S. Navy photo

LONDON, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A squadron of Russian Navy warships entered the English Channel Friday for military exercises, a spokeswoman for Russia's Northern Fleet said.

At least four vessels are in the strategic waterway separating England from Europe. They passed through the international waters of the Straits of Dover, where the Channel is at its narrowest at 20.6 miles and the ships were closest to England, and are presently stopped off the coast of France's Normandy.

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The ships were escorted through the strait by a Royal Navy warship, the British Defense Ministry said in a statement, noting international law permits all vessels to travel through the area.

The Russian Navy told Russia's Sputnik News, formerly RIA Novosti, "crew members will conduct a series of activities to combat the underwater subversive forces, hold drills on ensuring survival of the ship when it sinks or catches fire," but a NATO spokesman responded the ships "are not exercising in the Channel, as some Russian headlines would have us believe." Britain's Royal Navy, in a statement, referred to the actions as "a routine maneuver."

"The Russians have every right, as do all navies, to transit the English Channel," NATO spokesman Jay Jansen told Bloomberg News. "It's an international waterway, as long as they stay out of territorial waters."

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Tensions between Russia and the West, over Russian involvement in Ukraine, have made sightings of Russian military planes and ships a source of concern. Earlier in November, NATO was critical of observed incursions into European airspace by Russian fighter planes and long-range bombers, noting they were flying more "provocative" routes than normal. NATO has sent fighter planes of its own to intercept the Russian planes over 400 times in 2014, an increase of 50 percent over 2013, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

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