Royal Navy tracks Russian ‘spy ship’ closely after it enters UK waters
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Defence secretary tells Commons the Yantar had been ‘mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure’. A Russian “spy ship” was tracked closely by the Royal Navy this week after it entered UK waters on Monday and passed through the Channel at a time of heightened concern about the safety of undersea cables.
The defence secretary, John Healey, told the Commons on Tuesday that the Yantar, a Russian vessel engaged in “mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure”, had passed through British waters for the second time in less than three months. Healey accused the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of trying to threaten European security by targeting undersea infrastructure carrying oil, gas, electricity and the internet. “We see you. We know what you’re doing,” he said before MPs.
The Yantar, officially an ocean research vessel, was first picked up 45 miles (70km) off the British coast, well inside the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on Monday. “Let me be clear, this is a Russian spy ship,” Healey told MPs. It had previously sailed through UK waters in November, when Healey said it had been “detected loitering over UK critical undersea infrastructure”. It then sailed into Irish waters east of Dublin, raising concern it was spying on internet connectors running between the UK and Ireland.
