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Britain and its allies tracked a month-long covert Russian submarine operation in and around UK waters, defence secretary John Healey announced on Thursday.
The operation involved a Russian Akula-class attack submarine and two spy submarines, which have since retreated, he told a press conference in Downing Street. He added that the attack submarine was probably a decoy.
“My message to Putin is that we see you over our cables and our pipelines,” said Healey, who added that the Royal Navy had dropped sonar buoys to warn the Russian submarines “that their covert operation had been exposed” and drive them off.
The escalation in Russian activity in an area of the Atlantic north of the UK was detected by the UK military while international focus was on the Middle East after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
“I’m pretty clear that Putin would have wanted us to be distracted by the Middle East,” he said, adding that “we recognise Russia as the primary threat to Britain and to Nato”.
Healey said two of the submarines belonged to Russia’s Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research — known as GUGI — which experts say runs covert maritime surveillance programmes.
An FT investigation into GUGI published last year revealed the extent of covert operations around the UK by Yantar, a Russian spy ship.
in the autumn of 2023, Yantar was one of several Russian naval vessels that congregated in British waters for 13 months of sustained surveillance around nodes of critical infrastructure starting, when Moscow was increasing surveillance activities on Nato allies following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Healey said that, in response to the recent presence of Russian submarines, he deployed UK armed forces. “A Royal Navy warship and Royal Air Force P8 aircraft alongside allies ensured that the Russian submarines were monitored 24/7.”
A Russian Akula-class submarine had “subsequently retreated home, having been closely tracked throughout, and we continued to monitor the two GUGI submarines in and around wider UK waters.”
Britain’s armed forces “left them in no doubt that they were being monitored, that their movements were not covert, as President Putin planned, and that their attempted secret operation had been exposed,” Healey said.
“Those GUGI submarines have now left UK waters and headed back north.”
Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, Healey said: “To Putin, I say this: we see you, we see your activity over our underwater infrastructure. You should know that any attempt to damage it will not be tolerated and would have serious consequences.”
UK government officials have grown increasingly concerned in recent years about the protection of subsea fibre optic cables, which transmit vast volumes of internet data, and underpin global banking and communications.
Healey said there was no evidence that any cables or pipelines were damaged during the most recent Russian incursion.