The Russian Defence Ministry said one of its warships, the destroyer Smetlivy, had been forced to fire the warning shots on Sunday morning and that it had summoned the Turkish military attache over the incident.
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When the vessel was 600 metres away, the destroyer fired with small arms and the Turkish vessel quickly changed course.
The Russian vessel had been unable to establish radio with approaching Turkish ship, which also did not respond to visual signals and flares.
“Particularly, our deep concerns about more Turkish provocations towards the Russian destroyer Smetlivy were expressed”.
But Turkey has not held back from sharply criticizing Russia’s bombing campaign there, where, according to a Reuters analysis, more than 80 percent of Russian attacks have bombed non-ISIS targets.
“We don’t want tensions. We have always been in favour of overcoming tensions through dialogue rather than conflict”, he added, quoted by Dogan news agency.
Sunday’s incident comes at a time when tension between Ankara and Moscow remains high following Turkish F16s’ downing of a Russian SU-24 aircraft near the Turkish-Syrian border.
The incident occurred on Sunday 22 kilometers (13 miles) north of the Greek island of Limnos in the Aegean Sea, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.
“We were not aware that they had fired shots at us”, Muzaffer Gecici said.
When Turkey and its US-NATO backers staunchly defended the shoot down, Russian Federation responded by imposing economic sanctions against Ankara and deploying advanced anti-aircraft systems to northern Syria. Over the weekend, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that Turkey is growing impatient with Russian provocations.
President Obama has also asked the two nations to peacefully discuss how to avoid future run-ins, calling on both to focus on their Syria campaigns against ISIS.
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President Vladimir Putin said the rebels, who oppose Moscow’s ally Syrian President Bashar Assad, were receiving weapons from Russian Federation, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Putin meant Assad’s army was getting weapons and the rebels were receiving only air support.
