The Karen was pulled at 10 knots after the sub snagged in its fishing nets 18 miles from Ardglass on the south-east shore of Northern Ireland in April. The trawler was badly damaged but the crew escaped unharmed.
According to military expert Yevgeny Buzhinsky, it is not the first time that the West had to admit such mistakes.
“Last year, the Swedes ‘caught’ a Russian submarine, even put up some pictures and then it turned out that the submarine was Dutch. Holland recognized it and so did Sweden. It is hard to deny the obvious. It seems to me that the Russian Navy has even stopped refuting the endless rumors. We must treat them with humor. After all, if there's something that happens, it is certainly a Russian submarine or a ship of aliens. There are no other variants,” said Eugene Buzhinskiy on Radio Sputnik.
He went on to say that such provocations against Russia are almost foolish and blatantly propagandistic, the military expert said.
The submarine hit the fishing trawler, but did not rise to the surface and did not stay at the scene, as required by instruction. The British media shortly afterwards published a report on the possible involvement of a Russian submarine.
However, the perpetrators of the incident turned out to be British. “British submarine must be blamed for the incident, when the lives of seamen on the trawler were under threat,” said the British tabloid Mirror.
According to the Minister of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom Penny Mordaunt, the team of the British submarine “did not acknowledge Karen as a fishing boat in the waters,”
She also added, “The Royal Navy has now confirmed that the British submarine in fact is responsible for the incident.”
“We deeply regret the incident, the delays in the establishment of the guilty party and the consideration of the day's events, as well as about the consequences,” added Mordaunt.
