Lasers from a Russian spy ship were used to disrupt the Royal Air Force operations tracking its activity near UK waters, British defence secretary John Healey said on Wednesday.
The minister told reporters that the “deeply dangerous” move by the ship, Yantar, was being taken “extremely seriously” by the government.
According to Healey, the Yantar—which entered service in 2015—forms part of Russia’s Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI), an organisation tasked with “conducting surveillance during peacetime and sabotage during conflict.”
We have military options ready should the Yantar change course.
Matt Western, Labour MP and Chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, also criticised the actions of the Yantar crew, who are believed to be mapping Britain’s network of undersea cables.
The Russian Embassy, however, rejected the allegations, insisting in a statement that Russia is “not interested in British underwater communications.”
It added:
London, with its Russophobic path and increasing militaristic hysteria leads to the further degradation of European security, providing the premise for new dangerous situations.
