UK navy foiled Russian submarines surveying undersea cables, defence minister says

John Healey says warship and aircraft forced Russia to abandon activity in North Sea in month-long operation A British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines trying to survey vital undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, ensuring they fled the area, the defence secretary, John Healey, has said. Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Healey said the UK operation lasted more than a month and saw a Royal Navy warship and P8 marine patrol aircraft “track and deter any malign activity” by three Russian submarines. Declining to reveal precisely where the operation took place, Healey said it did not happen in UK territorial waters but in the exclusive economic zone that extends up to 200 nautical miles from the UK coastline, or where it meets the boundary of other nations’ zones. The submarines were a Russian Akula class nuclear-powered vessel and two deep-sea submarines from Russia’s directorate for deep sea research (Gugi), he added. The Russian action took place “while the eyes of many were trained on the Middle East” because of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, Healey said. He added: “I’m making this statement to call out this Russian activity, and t