Royal Navy tracks ‘deeply suspicious’ Russian ship threat | UK | News
The Royal Navy is tracking a “suspicious” Russian ship that was intercepted for 14 hours on undersea data cables in the Bristol Channel.
The cargo ship Sinegorsk departed for the Bristol Channel on Tuesday night and appeared to be anchored about two miles off Minehead on the north coast of Somerset.
Less than a mile from its location are undersea telecommunications cables connecting Britain to the US, Canada, Spain and Portugal.
Shadow Security Secretary Alicia Kearns said: “The movements of this Russian ship over our transatlantic deep sea data cables are extremely suspicious.”
“It is yet another reminder of the persistent and harmful threats our country faces from Putin and his allies.”
Sinegorsk’s last recorded port call was three weeks ago at Arkhangelsk in Russia. Arkhangelsk was an important trading port that was also the headquarters of the Russian navy’s Northern Fleet.
The ship remained motionless for hours
Information from MarineTraffic revealed the Sinegorsk was moving across the Bristol Channel on Tuesday night before coming to a halt about two nautical miles off Minehead around 11pm.
The ship remained motionless at that point, claiming that it remained anchored there until 14:00 on Wednesday.
Five undersea data cables lie within three quarters of where Sinegorsk is located. Two of these make up the TGN Atlantic cable system connecting the UK to New York. Another cable, EXA Express, connects the UK with Nova Scotia in Canada, the global telecommunications meeting point.
The remaining pair, which make up the VSNL Western European cable network, connect Spain and Portugal to Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper.
Aircraft tracking sites showed a Coast Guard surveillance plane with registration G-HMGC circling Sinegorsk for about half an hour on Wednesday morning.
Additional surveillance by the Royal Navy Wildcat helicopter flying under the call sign Talon 1, originating from Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, showed Sinegorsk sailing westwards just before 2 p.m.
Wildcats can be armed with up to four Sea Venom anti-ship missiles or Sting Ray torpedoes. It is not known whether the helicopter chasing Sinegorsk was armed.
The purpose of the break remains unclear
What the Russian ship was doing during the 14 hours it spent off Minehead, visible to holidaymakers in the coastal town of Butlin resort, remains a mystery.
Ministry of Defense sources suggested that Sinegorsk may have entered the Bristol Channel to avoid bad weather conditions.
The Met Office’s marine forecast for Wednesday said sailors should expect Force 6 winds, defined by the Royal Meteorological Society as a “strong breeze”. Sea state forecasts for Wednesday were “moderate or rough” and “occasional rain or showers.”
Russian ships have previously been linked to attempts to interfere with undersea infrastructure.
The crew of the Russian tanker Fitburg was arrested by Finnish authorities in December after the undersea cables between Helsinki and Tallinn were damaged while the ship was passing over them.
Earlier in the year, a prominent Russian wiretapping ship, the Yantar, entered British waters and launched a maritime surveillance operation by the Royal Navy. Defense Secretary John Healey told Parliament: “Let me be clear, this is a spy ship.”
