The Ministry of Defence says the Royal Navy intercepted two Russian vessels in the English Channel in the latest movement of Russian ships near UK waters.
According to the MoD, HMS Severn shadowed the RFN Stoikiy, a corvette, and the Yelnya, a tanker, as they transited west through the Dover Strait into the Channel over the past two weeks.
The interception followed a separate incident in which the Russian vessel Yantar was sighted off the Scottish coast. UK officials said the ship used lasers that interfered with RAF pilots monitoring its activity. Defence Secretary John Healey described the action as “deeply dangerous” and said the UK would continue to track Russian naval movements closely.
Healey said last week that the UK had recorded a 30 percent increase in Russian vessels posing risks to British waters over the last two years.
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After shadowing the Stoikiy and the Yelnya, HMS Severn later passed monitoring responsibilities to a NATO partner near the coast of Brittany in north west France. The MoD said the UK ship maintained observation from a distance and remained prepared to respond if required.
The Stoikiy has previously been tracked in the area. In May, the Royal Navy deployed two ships and aircraft from the 814 Naval Air Squadron to follow the vessel as it moved through the Channel to meet the merchant ships Sparta IV and General Skobelev. The group later returned to the Baltic Sea under observation by HMS Hurworth.
Healey has said the recent patterns reflect broader Russian activity affecting Europe as a whole, not only Ukraine.