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A Russian spy ship has entered British waters and shone lasers at military pilots, the defence secretary has said, as he warned the UK was facing a “new era of threat” from hostile countries.
John Healey said on Wednesday that the Yantar surveillance ship had crossed in and out of the UK’s exclusive economic zone multiple times in recent weeks, not for the first time this year.
Unlike on that previous occasion, Russian sailors started directing lasers at British military pilots who were monitoring them, in what UK officials said was a significant escalation.
In a speech delivered from Downing Street, Healey said: “As I speak, a Russian spy ship, the Yantar, is on the edge of UK waters, north of Scotland, having entered the UK’s wider waters over the last few weeks. This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables.
“We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF P-8 planes to monitor and track this vessel’s every move, during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots. That Russian action is deeply dangerous, and this is the second time this year that this ship, the Yantar, has deployed to UK waters. So my message to Russia and to Putin is this: we see you, we know what you’re doing, but if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”
He added: “Anything that impedes, disrupts or puts at risk pilots in charge of British military planes is deeply dangerous. This is the first time we’ve had this action from Yantar directed against the British RAF – we take it extremely seriously.”
The latest foray by the Yantar is part of a pattern of Russian incursions into Nato-controlled territory, including Russian drones recently being flown over Poland and Belgium. The ship previously entered British waters in January, when it was tracked by a nuclear-powered submarine, which then surfaced very close to it.
Healey said he had changed the navy’s rules of engagement so British ships could follow the Yantar more closely, at a distance understood to be equivalent to the length of a football pitch. He said he believed the ship was trying to map British undersea cables.
In what was billed as a pre-budget speech, Healey said the latest Russian action showed why the government had been right to increase defence spending, as he announced that some of the extra funding would be used to build 13 new ammunition factories.
Speaking from the Downing Street briefing room rather than his more familiar surrounds of the Ministry of Defence opposite, Healey said: “The chancellor’s decisions at this budget will protect those choices into the future to make Britain safer, more secure at home, stronger abroad.”
The defence secretary and Keir Starmer are struggling to agree the terms on which the UK could participate in a new European defence fund despite the prime minister having flown to Berlin on Tuesday to talk about security.
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Politico reported on Wednesday that Brussels was asking for the UK to contribute between €4.5bn (£4bn) and €6.5bn to the Safe fund, while the UK had offered between €200m and €300m.
Healey said the government would not sign a deal unless it represented value for money in what appeared to be a downbeat assessment of the chances of reaching an agreement. “We’re ready to be part of this scheme but we’re not ready to be willing at any price,” he said.
“For us as the UK, we have an industry that’s second to none in Europe. We will do these deals with other European countries. We will play our part in reinforcing European security, and we recognise that responsibility we have as Britain, amongst European nations, particularly those in Nato, to play that role in future – and we will, in or out of Safe.”
Healey has been talked of by some as a potential successor to Starmer should the prime minister be forced out of office before the next election, though his allies say he is not interested in the top job.
