Russian warship reportedly shoots at German helicopter: NATO surveillance plane encounter in Baltic Sea raises concerns about heightened conflict tensions

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

The crew of the Russian ship fired signal ammunition, the German Press Agency in Brussels has learned. 

According to the German newspaper Bild, the warning shots were fired at the NATO reconnaissance aircraft but this is yet to be confirmed.

Signal ammunition is typically utilized as a means of issuing warning shots rather than launching an attack. However, this particular incident serves as an indication of the increasingly closer proximity between NATO and Russia, potentially leading to a direct confrontation.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned the incident at a NATO meeting but did not give further details. 

However, a spokesperson for the German ministry of defence has so far been unable to confirm the reports of signal ammunition being fired. 

Recent events have witnessed a notable escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine within the last couple of weeks. The UK and US have both granted authorization for Kyiv to engage in firing western-manufactured missiles across the border.

Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev even declared late last month that NATO and the US is at ‘full war’ with Russia. 

NATO is currently carrying out increased 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.

There have been at least three incidents of possible sabotage to the 40-odd telecommunication cables and critical gas pipelines that run along its relatively shallow seabed since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

‘NATO is stepping up patrols,…allies are investing in innovative technologies that can help better secure these assets,’ Commander Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesperson for NATO’s Allied Maritime Command previously said. 

Yet the ease with which a ship’s anchor can slice through a cable, coupled with the often-treacherous sea conditions, makes actual prevention of such attacks almost impossible.

The firing of warning shots today comes former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev declared that the he West crossed ‘all red lines’ and is now ‘at war with Russia’. 

Medvedev, a close Putin ally who now serves as the Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that every Ukrainian strike on Russian territory with Western weapons would be met with a response.

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

‘Negotiations are a long way off, events like this could push those negotiations back even further,’ he told Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya.

‘Any strikes on Russia are unequivocally unacceptable. What happened was a crossing of all red lines.’

It comes as the ex-chief of MI6 admitted Britain must ‘face up to the fact’ the Kremlin feels it is fighting a war with the West, rather than just Ukraine.

Sir Richard Dearlove, who led Britain’s secret intelligence service from 1999 – 2004, told Sky News this week: ‘(Polish Prime Minister) Donald Tusk has referred to it as a pre-war situation. I think he’s wrong. I think it’s an actual war.’

He went on to justify his statement by referring to examples of Russian hybrid warfare on countries across Europe involving sabotage plots, cyber-attacks and ‘very aggressive moves’.

Meanwhile in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Kyiv’s army is registering sky-high rates of desertions as Russian forces continue to grind westward. 

Prosecutors opened up 60,000 cases in the first 10 months of this year against soldiers found to have deserted their posts – almost double as many cases initiated across all of 2022 and 2023 combined, the Financial Times reported. 

In an effort to stem the flow, Ukraine has upped its recruitment efforts, setting a bold target of signing up another 160,000 men to support war-weary frontline units in the next three months.

The shocking rates of desertion were revealed as Vladimir Putin’s forces move inexorably further into Ukraine, aiming to seize as much territory as possible ahead of Donald Trump‘s imminent return to the White House with both sides expecting Washington to push for ceasefire talks early next year.

Although their ranks are suffering heavy casualties, the Russian army is advancing at a rate faster than at any other time after the initial days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of London in November.

The bleak circumstances led Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s wartime foreign minister until he resigned in September, to declare that Kyiv ‘will lose the war’ unless a major reversal of fortunes can be realised.

The incident today is also the latest in a number of close calls between Russian and NATO forces. 

In September a Russian aircraft came dangerously close to a U.S. fighter jet sent to intercept them off the coast of Alaska.

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

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

Video of the interaction shows one Russian jet soaring past an American aircraft, quickly banking left and right.

‘The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,’ said Gen. Gregory Guillot.

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

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

The clip was released on the back of a report that the ‘highest levels’ of the Kremlin signed off on the aggressive behavior of the jets during the intercept.

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