A Russian warship has fired signal ammunition at a German helicopter that was on a reconnaissance mission over the Baltic Sea, it has been claimed.

The crew of the Russian ship fired signal ammunition, the German Press Agency in Brussels reported. The warning shots were fired at the NATO reconnaissance aircraft, German news outlet Bild claimed. This allegation is yet to be confirmed.

Signal ammunition is typically only used by vessels in emergency situations, the Mirror reports.

The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, mentioned the incident at a NATO meeting, without immediately providing further details. The German Foreign Minister also claimed many Russian ships in the Baltic Sea had been involved in circumventing sanctions.

She added that security measures surrounding undersea pipelines and data cables had been increased, and cited previous Russian attacks on infrastructure in the area.

Last month, two fibre optic cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged – one between Sweden and Lithuania, and the other between Finland and Germany.

German news site 20 Minuten also reported that Ms Baerbock said attacks on cables in the Baltic Sea had caused the disruption of the global positioning system GPS.

It comes amid rising tensions in recent weeks between the Kremlin and NATO countries, after UK and US long-range missiles were fired by Ukraine into Russian territory. This major development in the conflict led Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, to claim that Britain was now “directly” involved in the conflict.

Germany has been the second-biggest weapons supplier to Ukraine since the illegal invasion by Russia in 2022.

On Monday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years, just weeks after he was criticised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for having a phone call with Russian President Putin.

That call came at a time of widespread speculation about what the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump will mean for Ukraine, as the incoming president has promised to quickly end the conflict.

In a major shift, Zelensky has signalled that an offer of NATO membership to territory under Kyiv’s control could end “the hot stage of the war” in Ukraine.

Scholz’s visit comes ahead of an early German election expected in February.

As the campaign gets underway, Scholz has pointed to Germany’s status as Ukraine‘s second-biggest weapons supplier while also highlighting his “prudence” in working to prevent the war from escalating and refusing to deliver Taurus long-range cruise missiles.