Britain has revealed that it spent over a month tracking three Russian submarines in the North Atlantic, an operation it kept secret until now, and one that unfolded while the world's attention was fixed on the war in the Middle East.
Defence Secretary John Healey told a press conference at Downing Street that the UK, in partnership with Norway and other allies, tracked a Russian Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and two specialist spy submarines from Russia's Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, known as GUGI, in the Atlantic north of the UK.
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British warships and military aircraft identified the attack submarine entering international waters and began tracking it around the clock. After determining it was likely acting as a decoy, Britain worked with allies to locate the two GUGI submarines, which were conducting what Healey described as "nefarious activity" over critical undersea infrastructure.
Healey said, "A Royal Navy warship and Royal Air Force P8 aircraft alongside allies ensured that the Russian submarines were monitored 24/7. Our 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. Those GUGI submarines have now left UK waters and headed back north."
The Defence Secretary addressed Moscow directly. "We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences," he said.
"Putin would want us to be distracted by the Middle East," but that Russia remains the main threat to the UK and its allies. "We will not take our eyes off Putin," he said.
The submarine activity took place within the UK's exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from shore, but not within its narrower territorial waters, as per reports.
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Healey confirmed there was no evidence of damage to any undersea cables or pipelines.
NATO allies have been on heightened alert over undersea infrastructure since a series of power cable, telecom and gas pipeline outages occurred after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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