A Russian “spy ship” was closely tracked by the Royal Navy this week after it entered British waters on Monday and passed through the Channel amid growing concerns about the safety of undersea cables.
Defense Secretary John Healy told the Commons on Tuesday that Yenter, a Russian ship engaged in “mapping Britain’s underwater infrastructure”, had passed through British waters for the second time in less than three months.
Haley accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to threaten European security by targeting undersea infrastructure that carries oil, gas, electricity and the Internet. “We see you. We know what you are doing,” he told MPs.
Yenter, officially a marine research vessel, was picked up for the first time on Monday, 45 miles (70 km) off the British coast, inside the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). “Let me be clear, this is a Russian spy ship,” Haley told MPs.
It had previously sailed through UK waters in November, when Haley said it had “discovered clues about Britain’s undersea infrastructure”. It then moved into Irish waters east of Dublin, raising concerns that it was spying on internet connectors running between the UK and Ireland.
At the time, he was tracked by submarines, warships and patrol aircraft, Haley said. The submarine was ordered to surface near Yenter “to make it clear that we are secretly monitoring his every move”, he said.
This time the ship did not retreat and was followed by the frigate HMS Somerset and the patrol vessel HMS Tyne, which had been authorized to approach, Healey said.
Cables under the Baltic Sea have been damaged three times in the past 18 months under unexplained circumstances. On Christmas Day, an oil tanker dragging its anchor damaged a power cable running between Finland and Estonia, prompting NATO allies to increase patrols in the area.
It is not clear who was responsible for the incident, which involved the Cook Islands-registered Eagle S, but Haley told MPs that “many analysts believe it was a vessel in Russia’s shadow fleet. caused by”.
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The UK and other NATO countries are concerned about threats to undersea infrastructure, which is often critical to a country’s needs but difficult to defend. They believe that the threat has increased since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Yenter is officially a marine research vessel with an underwater rescue capability, but it is also a member of the Russian Navy. It is run by the country’s main Directorate of Deep Sea Research, which is part of the Ministry of Defence.
