Britain revealed on Thursday that it tracked and disrupted a covert month-long Russian submarine operation in and around its waters that aimed to map the island’s critical undersea cables.

Russia used one of its attack submarines as a distraction to allow other specialised units “conducting nefarious activity over critical undersea infrastructure elsewhere,” the British defence ministry said in a statement.

John Healey, Britain’s defence secretary, told reporters Russia hoped the UK would be “distracted by the situation in the Middle East” and that the country’s reactions “demonstrate publicly that we are not”.

At the heart of Russia’s operations was its spy ship Yantar, which was spotted around the UK as recently as November and January. Overall, the UK tracked a Russian destroyer, frigate, landing ship, and a Kilo-class submarine. Two more submarines that specialise in mapping underwater infrastructure were involved in the Russian operation, Healey said.

“As we act to defend our interests and Allies in the Middle East, we are tackling increasing threats to NATO in the High North,” he added.

The UK has seen an 30% increase in Russian vessels threatening the country’s waters, according to a statement from the ministry.

Britain, in coordination with allies including Norway, deployed a frigate and other navy ships, as well as helicopters and airplanes to track the submarines and Russian vessels.

“This was over a month where we and allies tracked every miles of the Russian subs, we saw [the submarines] spend time over critical infrastructure […] and dropped sonar buoys to demonstrate to them that we were able to track them every hour,” Healey said, adding that any damage to the subsea cables would be able to be linked to Russia immediately.

Russia attempts to survey underwater infrastructure, such as subsea fibre optic cables that are essential for international communication, during peacetime, to prepare its destruction should a conflict arise, the UK stated.

In recent years, multiple communication cables and gas pipelines were damaged in the Baltic Sea, prompting NATO to step up its efforts to monitor the region.

In order to deter future incidents, the UK will now deploy its aircraft carrier group into the High North, patrolling the area between Northern British waters and the Arctic.

For Healey, this incident reaffirms “that Russia remains the primary threat to Europe and NATO”.

(at)