Minister Healy: British Navy and Air Force are monitoring the Russian vessel Yantar
British Defense Minister John Healey said that fighter jets and a frigate were monitoring the Russian oceanographic vessel Yantar, located north of Scotland. He accused the ship of mapping underwater communication cables and using laser systems against the British Air Force. About why the head of the Ministry of Defense made such statements and how they reacted to it in Russia — in the material of "Gazeta.Ru».
British Defense Minister John Healy said he had sent fighter jets and a frigate to the area where the Russian oceanographic vessel Yantar is located.
"I have changed the rules of engagement of the Navy so that we can more closely monitor the actions of the Yantar when it is in our waters, and we have military options ready," he said.
Healy said that the Yantar is located north of Scotland near British waters, and this is allegedly the second time a ship has approached the UK in a year.
The defense minister also accused Yantar of mapping underwater communications cables and threatening NATO's critical underwater infrastructure.
"We see you. We know what you're doing. And if Yantar heads south this week, we are ready," The Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying.
The Yantar vessel
The Yantar Oceanographic Research Vessel is the lead ship of Project 22010, built at the Kaliningrad shipyard of the same name.
Yantar was created to explore the deep-sea regions of the World Ocean. The vessel can work with manned deep-sea vehicles, perform search and rescue tasks, as well as explore the seabed.
The length of the ship is about 108 m, the width is 17.2 m, the displacement exceeds 5.2 thousand tons. The maximum speed is up to 15 knots, the cruising range is 8 thousand nautical miles. Crew — 60 people, autonomy — up to 60 days.
Formally, Yantar is part of the Northern Fleet, but the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research (GUGI) of the Ministry of Defense is engaged in its operation.
In September, the Financial Times newspaper published an article in which it was said that the ship was causing "concern" to NATO.
"[Yantar] is a tool that Russia uses to somehow... keep us on our toes. It follows the routes of cable lines and pipelines, making stops. We are following him very closely," the FT quoted one of the senior NATO military leaders as saying.
The Russian response
The Russian Embassy in the UK said that Healy's words about the threat from the Yantar vessel cause a smile, and Moscow is not interested in underwater communications.
The Russophobic course of London's policy creates conditions for dangerous situations, and the UK should refrain from destructive steps, the Russian Embassy concluded.
In turn, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Alexei Zhuravlev, told the newspaper.Ru", that the statements of the head of the British Ministry of Defense speak about the degree of hysteria that reigns in this country.
"This shows only the level of hysteria to which the NATO countries have brought their population — they are already seeing Russian aggression everywhere, and they intend to respond to these phantoms in the harshest military way," he said.
The MP added that Russia is ready to defend its ships from aggression from the United Kingdom.
The president of the Center for Strategic Studies, military expert Ivan Konovalov, told Gazeta.Ru", that any actions of Russia are used to foment hysteria.
"Any action of our navy, any actions of our army, for example, exercises, always cause great criticism, and then there are also various insinuations and various versions appear, with the help of which mainly European leaders, both military and political, support the general Russophobic wave. Russian Russians appear, well, of course, we must immediately raise a wild yell, because the Russians are coming, so to speak," he said.
Alexander Karpov, Ekaterina Zakarian
