A Russian frigate opened artillery fire about 74 kilometers south of Plymouth, home to Devonport - one of the main bases of the British Royal Navy. A headline to make you shudder. But once you strip out the rhetoric, what remains is something far more level-headed: an announced exercise in international waters, confirmed by both sides.

The frigate „Neustrashimy” carried out live-fire gunnery in the English Channel. The British patrol ship „Tyne,” which was shadowing the Russian frigate, moved away before the firing began. And not by chance - the Russian crew had first informed the British by radio about the planned exercise and asked them to withdraw to a safe distance. „Tyne” pulled back but kept observing, and a French military aircraft was sent over the zone, its crew requesting clarification of the Russian ship's intentions, the BBC reports.

The maneuvers took place in international waters and lasted around 30 minutes. According to British sources, the frigate used a 100-millimeter ship's gun, but the exact number of shells and the aim of the exercise were not disclosed. The British Ministry of Defence confirmed the event: „The Royal Navy observed the exercise from start to finish and continues to closely monitor the vessel's activities, ready to protect national security.”

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed claims that Russia had violated international protocols - the exercise, he says, took place in international waters, with prior notice given to nearby vessels. And there's the whole trick of news like this: the event is real, the details are accurate, but the tone is cut so that a routine (if deliberately provocative) naval exercise sounds like the start of a war. The difference between „a Russian ship fires in international waters” and „Russia attacks” is made precisely by the headline - not by the facts beneath it.