Royal Navy intercepts Russian warship and tanker off UK coast

The Royal Navy intercepted a Russian warship and a tanker off the coast of the United Kingdom.

Patrol ship HMS Severn has eclipsed the corvette RFN Stoikiy and a tanker ship in the past two weeks, the Ministry of Defense said on Sunday.

The navy was monitoring the Russian movements in the Dover Strait and west through the English Channel. The ministry did not say exactly when the intervention took place.

HMS Severn later handed over monitoring duties to a NATO ally off the coast of Brittany but continued to observe remotely, the Ministry of Defense said.

The department said there had been a 30 per cent increase in the number of Russian ships “threatening” UK waters in the last two years.

HMS Severn’s Commanding Officer, Commander Grant Dalgleish, said the operation strengthened the Navy’s close work with NATO allies and highlighted the value of patrol ships.

The announcement came just days after defense secretary John Healey said a Russian spy ship had been spotted off British waters, where it turned lasers on RAF pilots pursuing it.

While tracking the spy ship Yantar, a Royal Navy frigate and other civilian ships experienced GPS jamming.

The Ministry of Defense said the combat capabilities of the frigate HMS Somerset were not affected.

The Royal Air Force has since deployed three P-8 Poseidon aircraft to Iceland’s Keflavik Air base to conduct surveillance operations as part of what the Ministry of Defense calls NATO’s collective defence.

Reconnaissance aircraft will patrol for Russian ships and submarines in the North Atlantic and the Arctic.