A spy ship from the Russian fleet entered the territorial waters of the United Kingdom several times, off the northern coast of Scotland, and, for the first time, pointed a laser at British airline pilots who warned it of the violation, as the Defense Minister, John Healey, denounced last Wednesday.
The ship Yantar It has been making incursions into waters under UK economic control in the North Sea for several weeks, but has not carried out any hostile maneuvers so far. With the use of the laser described by Healey, the minister highlighted the incident, in a speech to Downing Street, as proof that the country is facing a new “era of global threats”.
“This ship (the Yantar) is designed to gather information and map our undersea cabling. We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF P-8 aircraft to monitor and track the ship’s every movement. It was during that maneuver that the Yantar He directed the laser at our pilots. This is an extremely dangerous Russian action,” Healey explained.
“My message to Russia and Putin is this: We know what you are doing, and if the Yantar heads south again this week, we will be prepared,” he warned.
Healey instructed the British navy to monitor the vessel more closely. Yantarand gave permission to the responsible officials to reduce the approach and pursuit distance of the Russian vessel.
The minister took advantage of the incident to justify the significant increase in defense appropriations that the British government is preparing to confirm next week, when it presents the budgets.
The same ship was escorted out of the Irish Sea a year ago after passing through an area with major electricity and internet infrastructure and undersea cables. Him Yantar he had been spotted days earlier while accompanying a Russian warship, the Admiral Golovkoacross the English Channel.
The Russian maneuver is part of a series of aggressive and provocative incursions carried out by this country into NATO territory.
