London: The UK Armed Forces have stepped up patrolling the seas from the English Channel to the northernmost parts or the High North after “increased Russian activities”, which London termed as “threatening” its waters.
In a press statement released on Monday, November 24, Britain’s Defence Ministry recounted that in the past fortnight, the Royal Navy’s patrol ship HMS Severn intercepted Russian corvette RFN Stoikiy and tanker Yelnya off the UK coast.
Following a round-the-clock shadowing operation, it was reported that the Russian vessels sailed through the Dover Strait and westward through the English Channel. “HMS Severn later handed over monitoring duties to a NATO ally off the coast of Brittany, but continued to observe from a distance and remained ready to respond to any unexpected activity,” it stated.
The UK, according to the statement, has seen a 30 per cent increase in Russian vessels threatening UK waters in the past two years.
On Wednesday, Defence Secretary John Healey had confirmed Russian spy ship Yantar, allegedly used for gathering intelligence and mapping undersea cables, was operating on the edge of UK waters north of Scotland.
The Yantar’s crew was said to have directed lasers at the RAF P-8 pilots tracking it “in a reckless and dangerous act. While tracking Yantar, Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset and other civilian ships in the area experienced GPS jamming in a further demonstration of unprofessional behaviour, intended to be disruptive and a nuisance”, said the statement.
However, “HMS Somerset’s combat capabilities were not affected”, it added.
Thus, the UK is stepping up on defence and security, “backed by the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, including 4 billion pounds on boosting our drone capabilities and over 1 billion pounds on strengthening air and missile defence to protect the UK homeland,” said the Defence Ministry handout.
“These latest operations come less than a month after HMS Duncan tracked the movements of Russian destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov, and frigate HMS Iron Duke was dispatched to monitor Russian Kilo-class submarine Novorossiysk,” it further said.
“Last month, two advanced RAF surveillance aircraft conducted a 12-hour mission along Russia’s border to monitor NATO’s eastern and northern flanks,” which used advanced sensors to detect Russian activity and deliver critical intelligence for analysis.
The increase in UK Armed Forces activity comes along new sanctions where Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced last week that the UK, the US, and Australia are sanctioning Media Land – a Russian cybercrime group responsible for facilitating cyber-attacks on UK-based companies.
Meanwhile, the US-based Defense News website quoted the Russian Embassy in London responding to Healey’s statement last week by accusing the British government of “whipping up militaristic hysteria”, adding that Moscow has no interest in undermining the UK’s security.
“My message to Russia and to Putin is this: We see you. We know what you are doing. And we are ready,” the Defence Secretary said last Wednesday.
(IANS)
