Britain says Russian spy ship is on edge of UK waters, as defense secretary issues warning to Putin

A Russian spy ship was on the edge of United Kingdom waters, British defense officials said.

John Healey, the defense secretary, said it was the second time that the ship, the Yantar, had been deployed to UK waters, SKY News reported. 

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Britain’s Defense Secretary John Healey, backdropped by a screen displaying an image of Russian military ship Yantar, operating off the northern coast of Scotland, delivers a speech in the Downing Street briefing room in central London on Wednesday.  (Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables,” he said during a news conference. “We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF planes to monitor and track this vessel’s every move, during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.

Healey warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying: “we see you, we know what you’re doing, and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”

The UK plans to build a number of factories to make munitions and military explosives. The first one is expected to break ground next year. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Moscow-appointed head of Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Yevgeny Balitsky during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Healey’s warning came following a report by the Commons Defence Committee, which said that the UK “lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories” as it urged the government to launch a “co-ordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face,” the news outlet reported. 

The Yantar isn’t just part of a naval operation but part of Moscow’s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, which primarily works in surveillance in peacetime and sabotage during conflicts. 

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“That is why we’ve been determined, whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it and we say to Putin we are ready, and we do that alongside allies,” said Healey.