Navy scrambles to stop Putin spy submarines, as Ministers are told to crank up spending NOW

Labor was warned last night that a secret Russian submarine mission into British waters had further exposed the plight of our Armed Forces.

Yesterday it was revealed that the Kremlin had sent an attack submarine and two spy submarines to the North Sea, where they were able to monitor vital undersea cables and pipelines serving the UK.

They were pursued by a Royal Navy warship and helicopters for a month before withdrawing and their sonar equipment was shot down to prevent them from damaging critical infrastructure.

But experts said the incident was another striking example of how worn out the UK military had become following the debacle over the lack of warships in the Mediterranean when the Iran war began.

In another embarrassment, Vladimir Putin this week sent a warship to escort sanctioned Russian oil tankers across the English Channel.

This has led to renewed calls for the Chancellor to immediately increase spending on the Armed Forces to 3 per cent of GDP and publish the long-overdue Defense Investment Plan.

Former First Sea Lord and Labor Security Minister Lord West said: ‘We must put pressure on the Russians and allow no nonsense at any cost. And if they want to start a shooting match, we have to fight back.

‘If Putin starts sending submarines to our territorial waters, this is a violation of international law. In fact, Putin is already at war with us in the gray zone using cyber warfare and is pushing the limits elsewhere.

Picture: This satellite image released by the Ministry of Defense shows the Russian naval base Olenya in the High North before leaving port for UK waters with spy ships Yantar and specialist GUGI submarines.

‘The Royal Navy needs to defend our waters. We need a bigger Navy and more defense spending. Apparently Rachel Reeves is against it. We need to move to 3 per cent of GDP immediately and 3.5 per cent by the end of this Parliament.

‘All this jam won’t work tomorrow. The threat is today. Investment needs to be made now.’

Conservative defense spokesman James Cartlidge said: ‘This highlights the failure to rebuild the Royal Navy. ‘The Ministry of Defense’s failure to publish the Defense Investment Plan also remains a failure of government.’

The covert Russian submarine operation in and around British waters was revealed by Defense Secretary John Healey at a Downing Street press conference. He said he did this ‘to expose ongoing Russian activity in the UK that threatens us and to emphasize our continued readiness to respond’.

A few weeks ago, a Russian Akula-class attack submarine was spotted entering international waters in the North Sea, according to the Ministry of Defense. The show was monitored 24 hours a day by the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans, RFA Tidespring and Merlin helicopters, and RAF P8 aircraft.

However, this was merely acting as a decoy as mini-submarines belonging to Russia’s Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (known as GUGI) carried out ‘nefarious activities on critical undersea infrastructure elsewhere’. GUGI specializes in underwater surveillance, sabotage and reconnaissance, and their mini-submarines are believed to have retractable arms that allow them to cut cables and even cut cables so Russia can monitor the flow of data coming through them.

The British frigate traveled thousands of miles and aircraft flew more than 450 hours in the month-long operation, while the RAF and Navy used floating devices known as sonobuoys to track Russian ships.

Mr Healey said the attack submarine had ‘returned home’ after being identified, but there was no doubt that the remaining two GUGI ships ‘had been exposed to covert operation attempts’ and that they too had ‘now left UK waters and returned north’. He said there was no evidence of any damage to undersea cables or pipelines, and emphasized that the activity was in the ‘wide waters’ of the UK, extending deep into the North Sea as well as Norway, rather than being close to the coast.

Defense Secretary John Healey said Russia remained the ‘primary threat to the UK and NATO’ despite the war in Iran

Addressing President Putin directly, the Minister of Defense said: ‘We see you. ‘We see your activities on our cables and pipelines and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will lead to serious consequences.’

He added that despite the war in Iran, Russia remained the ‘primary threat to the UK and NATO’.

‘When a crisis erupts noisily and dangerously, as in the Middle East, I can understand why people question why all of the UK’s military assets and personnel are not deployed to deal with that crisis, but this is not in the UK’s national interest,’ he said.

He was repeatedly asked about the need to increase military spending more quickly and publish the delayed Defense Investment Plan, but insisted Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer were both committed to national security.

‘We are taking steps to rebuild the strength of our armed forces, strengthen Britain’s security and boost Britain’s economy and economic growth,’ he said.

And he emphasized that although “all eyes are on the Middle East,” the military “also protects the homeland.”

In what was seen as a veiled attack on Donald Trump, Mr Healey said: ‘What we know from what we do, rather than what we say, is that while we have responsibilities in the Middle East, we will keep our eye on NATO, we will keep our eye on defending and deterring the northern flank, and we will keep our eye on the Putin threat.’

The Ministry of Defense also revealed further footage yesterday of Royal Navy ships spying on other Russian ships near the British coast.

One of the images showed HMS Somerset, HMS St Albans and a Merlin helicopter following a Russian tanker and keeping a close eye on what appeared to be a Kremlin warship.