Royal Navy shadows three Russian ships by means of English Channel | EUROtoday

The Royal Navy has shadowed three Russian ships by means of the English Channel.

British minehunter HMS Cattistock and a Wildcat helicopter had been deployed on Wednesday to escort Russia’s Admiral vladimirskiy – an oceanographic survey ship beforehand accused of involvement in an operation to map the UK’s crucial undersea infrastructure – because it travelled alongside the UK’s south coast.

The British minehunter labored carefully with the helicopter to “keep a constant watch” because the Russian vessel handed by means of the busy transport lane, the Royal Navy stated.

This operation was adopted quickly by one other, as HMS Somerset and tanker RFA Tidesurge had been deployed to escort Russian touchdown ship RFN Alexander Otrakovsky and service provider vessel MV Ascalon by means of the Channel and North Sea.

The pair of Russian ships had been crusing in direction of the Baltic Sea and had lately left the Mediterranean.

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These newest operations comply with an analogous mission final week which noticed Royal Navy warships and helicopters observe a Russian job group coming back from Syria – the place Russia has reportedly been withdrawing from its prized foothold on the Tartus naval base, after the regime of Vladimir Putin’s ally Bashar al-Assad dramatically collapsed in December.

HMS Somerset has been deployed to observe Russian convoys coming back from the Mediterranean 3 times previously month alone and lately visited Aberdeen to refuel for his or her newest mission.

This newest interplay between the Royal Navy and a Russian survey ship comes simply weeks after Britain’s defence secretary John Healey disclosed to MPs that one other Russian survey ship – the Free – had been carefully monitored by the Royal Navy after getting into UK waters in each January and November.

“Let me be clear, this is a Russian spy ship used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure,” the defence secretary advised the House of Commons in January.

Revealing that he had modified the Royal Navy’s guidelines of engagement to permit British warships to extra carefully observe FreeMr Healey stated: “I also wanted President Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you’re doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”

Admiral vladimirskiy – the ship shadowed within the Channel final week – has additionally confronted allegations of working as a spy ship.

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In April 2023, a joint report by broadcasters in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway claimed the Admiral Vladimirsky was a part of a covert operation to map undersea infrastructure.

As a part of that investigation, the ship was tracked within the neighborhood of seven wind farms off the coast of the UK and the Netherlands throughout one alleged mission, by which it reportedly sailed for a month with its transmitter switched off.

When a reporter with Danish broadcaster DR approached the ship on a small boat close to Denmark’s coast in November 2022, he was confronted by a masked particular person carrying what seemed to be a army assault rifle.

The newest growth within the Channel got here as Russian officers met for US-led talks in Saudi Arabia, because the Trump administration pushes for a ceasefire within the Ukraine warfare.

Ahead of their first assembly in Riyadh on Sunday, Russia stated its fundamental goal in talks could be to safe a ceasefire within the Black Sea – which the White House stated on Tuesday had been agreed by each Moscow and Kyiv.

While Ukraine stated the ceasefire was efficient instantly, Moscow stated the deal would solely come into power after a collection of situations had been met – together with the lifting of restrictions and sanctions on a significant agricultural financial institution, exporters of meals and fertiliser and on Russian vessels.