Norwegian media: Russians fired at our peaceful trawler

Norwegian media write about the incident two weeks ago, which occurred in the Barents Sea at the Russian military exercises "Ocean-2024". They accuse the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Levchenko of attacking the fishing trawler MS Ragnhild Kristine, which was located in the Norwegian economic zone.

"I told the Russians on the radio that we should pull out our nets. But a huge Russian warship headed towards us at full speed with its guns," says the trawler's helmsman Eystein Orten.

According to the publication Frifagbevegelse, a fishing vessel from Aukry with a crew of six people was in the Barents Sea to the north of Varda, in the Norwegian economic zone, when fishermen saw a Russian warship nearby, which was giving signals with a searchlight. His captain contacted Orten by radio, warning that military exercises were taking place nearby and it was better for the ship to leave the area. However, the Norwegian fishermen did not want to leave, because the trawl was in the sea and it had to be selected. Then a warning shot was fired from the Russian ship "somewhere in the sea."

"We were shaken up a lot," says Orten. "But no one was hurt."

After that, the Norwegian fishermen were forced to leave the fishing spot, abandoning the trawl. They complained about the actions of the Russian warship to the Norwegian Coast Guard, where they confirmed an incident involving a Russian warship, but denied information about a warning shot. According to the head of the communications Department of the Norwegian Joint Staff, Lieutenant Colonel Vegard Finberg, they do not have such information. According to Orten, as a result, they lost the catch in the amount of about 100 thousand Norwegian kroner.