Boris Johnson admits he is provoking Russia. Maybe he believes it is Iraq, Libya or Northert Ireland!

Boris Johnson has insisted HMS Defender was “entirely right” to voyage through the disputed waters around Crimea as Russia threatened to retaliate if there was a repeat of the incident.

Moscow claimed that warning shots were fired by Russian vessels at the destroyer as it passed through the contested part of the Black Sea on Wednesday – an assertion dismissed by the UK Government which said only that a routine “gunnery exercise” took place.

The Prime Minister said the route was “wholly appropriate” and the destroyer was part of an international Carrier Strike Group that was “sticking up for our values”.

Speaking to reporters at a barracks in Aldershot, Mr Johnson sidestepped a question on whether he had personally authorised HMS Defender’s voyage.

“These are a matter for the MoD (Ministry of Defence) but if you want my view I think it was wholly appropriate to use international waters, and by the way the important point is that we don’t recognise the Russian annexation of Crimea, this is part of a sovereign Ukrainian territory, it was entirely right that we should indicate the law and pursue freedom of navigation in the way that we did, take the shortest route between two points, and that’s what we did.”