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British defense officials said a Russian spy ship was off the coast of United Kingdom waters.
Britain’s Defense Secretary John Healey said this is the second time the ship, Yantar, has been deployed to British waters, Sky News reported.
“This is a ship designed to gather intelligence and map our undersea cables,” he said during a news conference. “We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF aircraft to monitor and track every movement of this ship, during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.”
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British Defense Secretary John Healey, seen in front of a screen displaying the image of the Russian military ship Yantar, delivers a speech in the Downing Street briefing room in central London on Wednesday. (Stephen Russo/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Healey warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “We see you, we know what you’re doing and if Yantar goes south this week, we’re ready.”
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Healy issued his warning following a report by the Commons Defense Committee, which said Britain “lacks a plan to defend the homeland and overseas territories” and urged the government to launch a “coordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face”, news outlets reported.
Yantar is not just part of a naval operation, but part of Moscow’s Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, which primarily conducts surveillance in peacetime and sabotage during conflict.
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Healy said, “That’s why we are resolute. Whenever Yantar comes into British territorial waters, we track it, we intercept it, and we say to Putin, ‘We are ready,’ and we do the same with allies.”
