Britain says a Russian spy ship has returned to UK waters in a sign of a threat to the Kremlin

Britain warned on Wednesday that it faced a growing threat of aggression from Russia, and confirmed that a Russian spy ship had passed the British coast for the second time in three months, in the latest incident that appeared to be a test British military capabilities.

British Defense Secretary John Healey told Parliament that two Royal Navy ships had been deployed for two days to monitor the passage of the Yantar, which he described as a Russian spy ship used to gather intelligence and mapping of Britain’s underwater infrastructure.

The incident is the latest in a series of Russian ships and planes around Britain and comes amid growing concerns in Europe about threats to critical infrastructure and sabotage, with Western intelligence agencies warn of Kremlin plans to punish Europe for supporting Ukraine. Last year, when the Yantar was first spotted in British waters, a nearby British submarine was monitoring it, the defense secretary said on Wednesday.

While authorities have linked Russia’s intelligence services to vandalism, arson and attacks across Europe in recent years, the threat at sea has caused the most anxiety and prompted the boldest response. Last week, NATO announced it was deploying warships, reconnaissance aircraft and drones to protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea after several undersea cables, including ships, were cut. dragged the anchor to the bottom of the sea.

Suspicion has fallen on ships linked to Russia and China, with EU vessels surrounding Chinese-flagged vessels for weeks and Finland seizing an oil tanker that the experts and officials that may be part of Russian efforts to avoid Western sanctions.

Russian naval vessels have been on missions near Britain and elsewhere for years. But Mr Healey on Wednesday gave an unusual detail to the world of conventional military surveillance, highlighting growing concerns about Russian activity, particularly around underwater cables linking Great- Brittany on the continent of Europe.

“Russia remains a threat to Britain,” Mr Healey said on Wednesday, adding that he wanted to send a message to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. “’We see you. We know what you’re doing. And we will not back down from aggressive action to protect this country,’” he said.

Mr Healey also told lawmakers that he had changed naval regulations to allow the two British ships to come closer and monitor the movements of the Yantar, which had already left for Dutch waters.

Last November, the Yantar was spotted moving around British undersea infrastructure, Mr Healey said, adding that at the same time he authorized a Royal Navy submarine to go out there. near the Yantar to show that it is monitored.

At that time, the British said, the Yantar was accompanied by the frigate, Admiral Golovko, and the support tanker, Vyazma, before the ships left for the Mediterranean.

The Yantar, which has been in service for about a decade, is a highly sensitive spy vessel developed by Russia’s Great Research Fund for Deep Sea Exploration to hunt for critical underwater cables, the Justin Crump, chief executive of a private intelligence firm. , Sibylline, who has overseen the ship for years. The ship has two mobile submersibles that can operate extensively and remain invisible, he said.

Although the Yantar is capable of sabotage, Mr. Crump said, it is more likely that the vessel will be used to locate and possibly store cables for data collection, and perhaps map their locations for future operations. .

“They put a lot of effort and a lot of money into developing these ships, which have amazing capabilities in this field,” he said. “And in fact, because of the destruction of pipes or cables, they realize that they can just pull an anchor from the bottom of the sea.”

Although intelligence agencies and experts say underwater wiretapping may be part of what is believed to be the Kremlin’s secret playbook, it has proven difficult to find evidence linking the Russia in recent episodes. The Kremlin has denied involvement in the sabotage.

On Wednesday, Finnish authorities announced that a preliminary investigation into last month’s massive underwater cable cutting was nearing completion, but said it was too soon to say whether a country was behind it. . Indeed, investigators have concluded that the captured oil tanker, the Eagle S, which left a Russian port shortly before the cable was cut, dragged its anchor up to 100 kilometers across the seabed. sea, an action that experts said could have been accidental. .

Shipping experts identified the Eagle S as Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, a group of aging tankers used by Moscow to smuggle oil around the world to fuel its war machine in Ukraine. The tank and its crew remain in a Finnish prison.

Russia has long expressed interest in the West’s undersea cable network, experts say. In recent years, Russian merchant and marine vessels have been prowling the coast of Ireland, where an undersea cable connecting Europe and North America is located.

“What we don’t know is why they’re doing it,” said Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who researches Russian naval activities.

“Are they just saying we can sit on the submarine cable all we want and you can’t do anything about it?” he asked. “Are they doing reconnaissance for the upcoming action that they want to do or are they doing some kind of counter action?

There is little the country can do about it, Ms. Braw said, because international maritime law does not prevent Russian ships from operating in these areas.

Alistair Carmichael, a British lawmaker representing the islands of Orkney and Shetland, said that “Yantar’s work can be improved.” But he added that he had been warning Russian ships operating around the Shetland Islands, in northern Scotland, for almost two years.

“This is a strategic threat to the United Kingdom as a whole but most acutely to our island communities who rely on cable for digital communications and energy,” he told Parliament. .

Britain has been one of the staunchest backers of Ukraine since Russia invaded it in 2022, and tensions between London and Moscow escalated last year when Britain fired a missile Storm Shadow in the Kursk region of Russia, Ukraine.

Amid heightened tensions last October, Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, Britain’s domestic security agency, said he was on a mission to “bring chaos to Britain’s streets.” and Europe” of the Russian intelligence agency. He accused Russia’s military intelligence of “dangerous activities with increasing recklessness,” including incidents of “arson, sabotage and more.”

In April, British prosecutors charged five men with working on behalf of Russia to carry out an arson attack on a Ukrainian-linked business in Britain. And last fall, officials said fires at shipping facilities in Britain and Germany were caused by incendiary devices that may have been planted by Russian workers.

Britain has recently reported more overt Russian military activity. Last September, British Typhoon fighter jets said they scrambled to intercept two Russian Bear-F fighter jets operating near British airspace. The British navy also reportedly shadowed four Russian ships, including a Kilo-class submarine through the English Channel and the North Sea.

Johanna Lemola contributed to the report from Helsinki.