You thought all eyes were on the Middle East, but ours were on your subs, Healey tells Putin

While global attention was focused on the Middle East, the UK and its allies were closely monitoring Russian vessels attempting to spy on underwater cables and pipelines in and around UK waters, Defence Secretary John Healey has revealed. 

Mr Healey told a Downing Street press conference that during a month-long operation, an Akula-class submarine, in addition to two from the Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research from Russia's Gugi programme, were tracked by a Royal Navy warship and an RAF P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft.

The Akula-class submarine was a likely decoy, he said, to distract them from the Gugi submarines, which "had spent time over critical infrastructure relevant to the UK and its allies in the North Atlantic". 

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He added that sonobuoys were deployed to demonstrate that the area was being monitored and to deter any activity that could damage the cables, which he was confident remained intact, but had yet to verify. 

Speaking directly to President Putin, he said: "We see you, we see your activity over our cables and our pipelines… any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated, and will have serious consequences."

He added that all three submarines have since departed UK waters and have headed back north.  

When asked by reporters on whether Russia had used the conflict in Iran as an opportunity to launch their covert operations in UK waters, Mr Healey's response was unwavering. 

"I'm pretty clear that Putin would want us to be distracted by the Middle East," he said, adding that the recent operation demonstrated that the UK are not only exposing Russia's covert operations, but recognises them as the primary threat to the UK and to Nato. 

"We will not take our eyes off Putin, whilst at the same time we act to protect our British interests and our British allies in the Middle East," he added.