Britain said on Wednesday that a Russian spy ship had passed its coast for the second time in three months in an incident believed to be aimed at testing Britain’s military capabilities, underscoring the threat of invasion from Russia. He warned that it was increasing.
British Defense Secretary John Healy told Parliament that two Royal Navy ships had been sent for two days to monitor the passage of the Yantar, which will be used to gather intelligence and map Britain’s critical underwater infrastructure. He explained that it was a Russian spy ship.
The incident was the latest in a series of intrusions into areas around the UK by Russian ships and aircraft, and comes amid growing concerns in Europe about possible threats and sabotage to critical infrastructure, which Western intelligence agencies said supported Ukraine. It warns of the Kremlin’s intentions to punish Europe. The Defense Secretary revealed on Wednesday that a nearby British submarine was monitoring Yantar when it was first spotted in British waters last year.
Authorities have linked Russian intelligence to vandalism, arson and assault across Europe in recent years, but threats at sea are causing the greatest anxiety and prompting the boldest responses. Last week, NATO announced it would deploy warships, patrol aircraft and drones to protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Several undersea cables in the Baltic Sea have been severed, apparently by ships dragging their anchors along the ocean floor.
Suspicions have been hanging over ships linked to Russia and China, with European Union vessels surrounding a Chinese-flagged vessel for weeks and Finland seizing an oil tanker, experts and officials said. He said this could be part of Russia’s efforts to circumvent Western sanctions.
Russian naval vessels have been conducting missions near Britain and other countries for years. But Mr Healy on Wednesday provided an unusual amount of detail about the normally shadowy world of military surveillance, highlighting growing concerns about Russian activity, particularly around the vital undersea cables linking Britain to continental Europe.
“Russia remains the most immediate and immediate threat to the UK,” Mr Healey said on Wednesday, adding that he wanted to send a message to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. “‘We meet again. We know what you’re doing, and we won’t hesitate to take strong action to protect this country,'” he said.
Mr Healy also told MPs that he had changed naval rules of engagement to allow two British ships to approach and monitor the movements of the Yantar, which then departed for Dutch waters.
In November last year, Mr Healy said, Yantar was spotted loitering over the UK’s critical undersea infrastructure, and at that time a Royal Navy submarine was sent to Yantar to show that Yantar was being watched. He added that he was allowed to surface nearby.
Britain said Yantar was accompanied by the frigate Admiral Golovko and the support tanker Vyazma at the time before setting sail for the Mediterranean.
The Yantar, which has been in service for about 10 years, is a highly sophisticated spy developed by Russia’s Deep Sea Research Directorate specifically to search for important undersea cables, said Justin Crump, CEO of the private intelligence company. The ship, Sibulin, has been monitoring the ship for many years. The ship is equipped with two autonomous submersibles, allowing it to operate over a wide range and with little detection, he said.
Crump said that while the Yantar may be capable of carrying out sabotage operations, it is also possible that the ship could be used to locate and eavesdrop on cables for intelligence gathering and map locations for future operations. He said that sex is higher.
“They have spent a lot of time, effort and money developing these ships, and they have a lot of great capabilities in this area,” he said. “In fact, they realized that if you want to destroy a pipeline or a cable, all you have to do is drag an anchor to the ocean floor.”
Intelligence agencies and experts say cutting the undersea cables falls within the scope of an alleged secret Kremlin project, but evidence linking Russia to recent incidents has proven difficult to uncover. I am doing it. The Kremlin denies involvement in the subversive activities.
On Wednesday, Finnish authorities said they were nearing the end of a preliminary investigation into several high-profile submarine cable cutting incidents that occurred last month, but said it was too early to say whether any country was behind it. said. Investigators have concluded that the seized Eagle S oil tanker, which left a Russian port shortly before its cables were cut, was dragging its anchor up to 100 kilometers (100 kilometers) across the ocean floor, but experts say the act was He said it couldn’t be a coincidence. .
Maritime experts identified the Eagle S as belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet. The fleet is a group of aging tankers used by Russia to covertly transport crude oil around the world to fuel its war machine in Ukraine. The tanker and nine crew members remain in custody in Finland.
Experts say Russia has long expressed interest in Western submarine cable networks. For the past few years, Russian naval and commercial ships have spent time off the coast of Ireland, where a bundle of undersea cables connects Europe and North America.
“What we don’t know is why they did it,” said Elizabeth Breaux, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who studies Russian maritime activities.
“Are they just signaling that we can sit on submarine cables as long as we want and you can’t do anything about it?” she asked. “Are they conducting reconnaissance for future actions or are they conducting some kind of hostile activity?”?
International maritime law does not prevent Russian ships from operating in these waters, so there is little countries can do about the problem, Blau said.
British MP Alistair Carmichael, who represents Orkney and Shetland, said: “Yantal’s activities could be an escalation.” But he added that he had been warning for almost two years that Russian vessels were sailing around the Shetland Islands, north of mainland Scotland.
“This is a strategic threat to the whole of the UK, but it is particularly acute for island communities that rely on cables for digital and energy connectivity,” he told parliament.
Britain has been the most vocal supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in 2022, and tensions between London and Moscow have escalated over Ukraine’s firing of British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia’s Kursk region last year. has increased.
In October last year, amid rising tensions, Ken McCallum, head of Britain’s internal security agency MI5, said Russian agents were tasked with “causing mayhem on the streets of Britain and Europe”. He accused Russian military intelligence of “dangerous acts carried out with increasing recklessness,” including incidents of “arson, sabotage, etc.”
In April, British prosecutors charged five men with arson attacks on Ukrainian businesses in the UK on behalf of Russia. And last fall, officials said fires at shipping facilities in Britain and Germany were probably caused by incendiary devices installed by Russian agents.
The UK has recently reported more overt Russian military action. Last September, the newspaper announced that British Typhoon fighter jets had scrambled to intercept two Russian Bear F aircraft flying near British airspace. The Royal Navy also announced that it was monitoring four Russian vessels, including a Kilo-class submarine, across the English Channel and the North Sea.
Joanna Remola I contributed a report from Helsinki.
