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The Royal Navy has shadowed three Russian ships through the English Channel.
British minehunter HMS Cattistock and a Wildcat helicopter were deployed on Wednesday to escort Russia’s Admiral Vladimirskiy – an oceanographic survey ship previously accused of involvement in an operation to map the UK’s critical undersea infrastructure – as it travelled along the UK’s south coast.
The British minehunter worked closely with the helicopter to “keep a constant watch” as the Russian vessel passed through the busy shipping lane, the Royal Navy said.
This operation was followed rapidly by another, as HMS Somerset and tanker RFA Tidesurge were deployed to escort Russian landing ship RFN Alexander Otrakovsky and merchant vessel MV Ascalon through the Channel and North Sea.
The pair of Russian ships were sailing towards the Baltic Sea and had recently left the Mediterranean.
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A 2023 report claimed the Admiral Vladimirsky sailed for a month with its transmitter turned off and loitered near UK wind farms (LPhot Edward Jones/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Wire)
These latest operations follow a similar mission last week which saw Royal Navy warships and helicopters track a Russian task group returning from Syria – where Russia has reportedly been withdrawing from its prized foothold at the Tartus naval base, after the regime of Vladimir Putin’s ally Bashar al-Assad dramatically collapsed in December.
HMS Somerset has been deployed to monitor Russian convoys returning from the Mediterranean three times in the past month alone and recently visited Aberdeen to refuel for their latest mission.
This latest interaction between the Royal Navy and a Russian survey ship comes just weeks after Britain’s defence secretary John Healey disclosed to MPs that another Russian survey ship – the Yantar – had been closely monitored by the Royal Navy after entering UK waters in both January and November.
“Let me be clear, this is a Russian spy ship used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure,” the defence secretary told the House of Commons in January.
Revealing that he had changed the Royal Navy’s rules of engagement to allow British warships to more closely track Yantar, Mr Healey said: “I also wanted President Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you’re doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”
Admiral Vladimirskiy – the ship shadowed in the Channel last week – has also faced allegations of operating as a spy ship.
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Prime minister Keir Starmer and defence secretary John Healey recently visited a Vanguard class submarine off the coast of Scotland as it returned home from a period of duty at sea (Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street)
In April 2023, a joint report by broadcasters in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway claimed the Admiral Vladimirsky was part of a covert operation to map undersea infrastructure.
As part of that investigation, the ship was tracked in the vicinity of seven wind farms off the coast of the UK and the Netherlands during one alleged mission, in which it reportedly sailed for a month with its transmitter switched off.
When a reporter with Danish broadcaster DR approached the ship on a small boat near Denmark’s coast in November 2022, he was confronted by a masked individual carrying what appeared to be a military assault rifle.
The latest development in the Channel came as Russian officials met for US-led talks in Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration pushes for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.
Ahead of their first meeting in Riyadh on Sunday, Russia said its main objective in talks would be to secure a ceasefire in the Black Sea – which the White House said on Tuesday had been agreed by both Moscow and Kyiv.
While Ukraine said the ceasefire was effective immediately, Moscow said the deal would only come into force after a series of conditions were met – including the lifting of restrictions and sanctions on a major agricultural bank, exporters of food and fertiliser and on Russian vessels.