Overview
- The patrol ship HMS Severn intercepted the corvette Stoikiy and tanker Yelnya in the English Channel within the past two weeks, maintaining round-the-clock watch before handing monitoring to a NATO ally.
- Defence Minister John Healey says the intelligence ship Yantar has been used to map seabed cables near Scotland and directed lasers at British aircrew observing it.
- The UK has deployed three P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft to Iceland for NATO missions tracking Russian ships and submarines in the North Atlantic and Arctic.
- British officials report roughly a 30% rise in Russian ship activity near UK waters over two years, while Russia’s London embassy denies hostile intent and accuses the UK of stoking militarism.
- Divers off Wales recovered a suspected Russian RGB-1A sonobuoy assessed by experts as a spying device, though the Royal Navy declined to comment on the find.