Another Royal Navy warship sails into the Black Sea just days after clash between Russian forces and HMS Defender

Portsmouth-based patrol HMS Trent entered the region this morning as part of her latest mission to the Black Sea.

The vessel is one of the newest warships to enter the British fleet and can tackle anything drug smuggling gangs and pirates to taking on terror groups and transporting special forces troops.

The ship completed her first trip to the Black Sea earlier this month, carrying out drills with Ukrainian forces.

She is heading back to the region to join Exercise Sea Breeze 21, a major Nato war game involving some 30 countries, a spokesman for the United States Navy confirmed to The News.

But Trent’s arrival comes at a time of heighten tensions between Russia and Britain, following last week’s incident involving Portsmouth-based destroyer, HMS Defender.

On Wednesday, the £1bn warship was threatened by Russian coastguard forces, who said it was operating illegally within its territorial waters.

The claim is disputed by the international community following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, with Britain seeing the water as as Ukrainian territory.

Russia said it had fired a warning shot towards Defender, after having swarmed the ship with some 20 military jets during its transit from Odessa to Georgia.

Video footage shared by Moscow shows a coastguard ship firing. However, the Ministry of Defence insisted the firing was nowhere near Defender and had been part of a pre-planned naval gunnery exercise by Russian forces.

Defender safely made its way out of the region.

Meanwhile, days earlier, a GPS tracking system used to monitor the positions of ships at sea showed Defender and a Dutch frigate appearing to be charging towards the Russian naval base at Sevastopol, in Crimea.

The recording noted the ships were just a few nautical miles outside of the military hub.

But the Ministry of Defence said the GPS data had been faked – or ‘spoofed’ – and that the ships had been alongside at the port of Odessa at the time.

Live-streamed footage of the port at the time of the alleged incident also confirmed this.

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