UK tracked Russia submarines in alleged Atlantic ‘covert’ operation: defence secretary

Britain said on Thursday it had tracked and deterred three Russian submarines on an alleged month-long “covert operation” in UK waters in the North Atlantic near vital undersea cables and pipelines.Disclosing details of the joint mission with Norway and other unspecified allies, British Defence Secretary John Healey said there was no evidence the Russian vessels had damaged the subsea infrastructure.The UK minister said he was revealing the operation, which involved British warships and military aircraft, to “call out this Russian activity” and send Russian President Vladimir Putin a message.Britain and its allies tracked an Akula-class Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine and two specialist submarines from Russia’s Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research (GUGI), the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.“To President Putin, I say ‘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 told a Downing Street news conference.Healey said he had deployed Britain’s armed forces “to track and to deter any malign activity by these vessels”, adding Putin’s purpose was “secret operations that remain undetected over our critical infrastructure”.“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.“We’ve exposed those covert operations. We’ve made clear to him and his submarines that we’ve watched them every step of the way.”We wanted to ensure that we could warn them that their covert operation had been exposed and reduce the risk that they may attempt any action that could damage our pipelinesRussia’s embassy in London said Healey’s statement was “impossible to either believe ‌or verify”.“Russia does not threaten undersea infrastructure, which is of critical importance to the UK. Nor do we employ aggressive rhetoric ⁠in this regard,” the embassy ⁠said in a statement.Moscow has previously denied allegations of involvement in a series of incidents in which European countries’ cables were damaged.GUGI is among Russia’s most secret facilities, responsible for subsurface ocean monitoring and atomic-powered, deepwater mini spy subs, according to defence experts.Further ReadingAlongside details and photos of the tracking mission, the MoD published a declassified image of the GUGI vessels docked at Russia’s Barents Sea naval base Olenya.The Russian attack sub was “a likely decoy to distract” from the two specialist vessels, which are “designed to survey underwater infrastructure during peacetime and sabotage it in conflict”, Healey told reporters.They “spent time over critical infrastructure relevant to us and our allies in the North Atlantic”, he noted, with UK warships dropping sonar buoys “to demonstrate to them that we were monitoring”.“We wanted to ensure that we could warn them that their covert operation had been exposed and reduce the risk that they may attempt any action that could damage our pipelines or our cables,” the defence secretary said.“I’m confident we have no evidence that there has been any damage.”An undated British Ministry of Defence handout image shows surface and subsurface satellite imagery of Russia’s Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI) associated vessels based at Olenya Guba in Russia. Photo: UK MOD Crown copyright / Handout via ReutersThe mission involving around 500 British staff saw UK aircraft fly more than 450 hours while a navy frigate covered several thousand nautical miles, Healey said.Separately, he responded to criticism in the Daily Telegraph newspaper that London was not making good on recent threats to stop vessels from Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” from transiting through UK waters.It followed the newspaper photographing a Russian frigate escorting at least one sanctioned Russian-linked tanker through British waters this week without interference from the UK Navy.“We have the military options and we’re ready … to interdict shadow fleet vessels,” Healey said.He added that London’s stance was “making Russia reroute its shadow ships … or escort its shadow ships with its own warships” and thereby “making it harder for Putin to pursue his illegal oil revenues”.“We aim, with others, to put more pressure in the coming weeks and months on that activity.”Additional reporting by Reuters