UK’s Defence Secretary, John Healey, says a British warship and aircraft tracked the three subs for more than a month and forced them to abandon their mission
According to The Guardian newspaper, John Healey, the UK’s Defence Secretary, told a press conference in Downing Street that a British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines attempting to survey undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic. As a result of their action, the subs were forced to abandon their mission.
Healey said the UK operation lasted more than a month during which British forces tracked and prevented “any malign activity” by three Russian submarines. He noted that the Russians had acted while the world’s attention is largely focused on the Middle East.
He said: “I’m making this statement to call out this Russian activity, and to President Putin, I say: ‘We see you. 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’.”
Healey said there was no evidence pipelines or cables had been damaged, but that with allies, UK forces would seek to verify this.
