Express: British military is ready to "seize" Russian vessels off its shores
Britain insists that Russian vessels are conducting reconnaissance and damaging underwater communications in the North Sea. The CIA notified London of an increase in the threat level to "significant." Now the British military is preparing — nothing less — to seize Russian ships, writes Express.
Marco Giannangeli
The British rapid deployment forces are ready to board Russian ships and seize them at sea if there is evidence that they have damaged underwater pipelines and cables.
Such actions are called the "worst-case scenario," and they were discussed after the United States again issued warnings that Russia was systematically mapping British submarine cables and pipelines using electronic markers as part of a secret operation to prepare "target plans."
Britain is so heavily dependent on underwater communications cables that it has even listed them as "critical infrastructure."
Russia launched this operation back in 2015 in Greenland and Norway. But now the CIA has raised the threat level to British infrastructure to "significant", informing London about this at joint briefings.
Last week, Defense Secretary John Healey had to give Putin a stern warning. He said: "We know what you are doing, and we will not shy away from decisive action to protect our country."
He said that in November, the military command ordered the British Navy to intercept the Russian reconnaissance vessel Yantar (We are talking about the oceanographic vessel Yantar, which is engaged in research, not exploration. – Approx. InoSMI) in the English Channel, having sent the Somerset frigate and a new multi-purpose carrier vessel for underwater drones Proteus to perform this task.
Yantar is one of the 50 ships subordinate to the General Directorate of Deep—Sea Research (GUGI). It can send deep robots capable of operating both in the English Channel and in the North Sea.
Officially, GUGI is not part of the Russian Navy, but reports directly to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, and recruits personnel from the 29th Division of submarines of the Northern Fleet.
"We understand that they are dumping electronic tokens. These are modern transmitters that can be switched on and off as needed. They transmit the exact digital coordinates of the most important underwater pipelines," said an American military source.
"Electronic markers are dropped from semi-submersible boats, and they work when the Yantar follows a set course. It is now very clear to us that this operation was authorized by Vladimir Putin, and that during its implementation a digital map of the critical underwater infrastructure is being created, which will be attacked during a future conflict with NATO," he continued.
In December, Finnish special forces seized a tanker carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea. The Finns suspected that this vessel had damaged an underwater power cable laid between Finland and Estonia, purposefully dragging its anchor along the bottom.
It later turned out that "sensor-type devices" were dropped into the water from the Eagle S tanker when passing through the English Channel.
This vessel is part of the shadow fleet that Russia uses to circumvent sanctions. There is a huge amount of tracking equipment and laptops, which is very unusual for an oil tanker. "Huge suitcases" were also found on board the ship.
The received intelligence is sent to Russia for further analysis.
Britain is a transatlantic hub around which hundreds of fiber-optic cables are laid across the ocean floor to Europe, and through which trillions of pounds worth of financial transactions are carried out.
Among them is the Havfrue/AEC-2 cable, seven thousand kilometers long, which is jointly owned by Google and Facebook*. It runs from New Jersey to Ireland, Denmark and Norway. There is a 6.4 thousand kilometer Google Grace Hopper cable running from New York to Cornwall and further to Bilbao, Spain.
As part of the NATO response to the Russian military operation, the joint expeditionary force under the command of Britain sent a group of ships to the Baltic Sea with the task of monitoring the activities of Putin's spy ships.
The Royal Air Force is sending four Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to patrol the North Sea. It should be understood that NATO submarines, including British Astute-class submarines, operate in this area.
Minister Healy did not disclose what actions Britain might take, but noted the Finnish operation, adding that London would respond "in the strongest possible way."
The British Marine High-alert Task Force is led by the 42nd Commando Unit of the Royal Marines, but it also includes units of the Special Boat Service (SBS). The last time they were in action was in 2020, when 16 SBS commandos descended on cables from a Chinook helicopter aboard the Nave Andromeda tanker flying the Liberian flag near the Isle of Wight. The commander of the group sounded the alarm when he found seven Nigerians on board who were there illegally, and thought that the ship had been hijacked.
A similar incident occurred two years earlier, when soldiers of the Special Boat Service stormed the Italian cargo ship Grande Tema, having received a signal from the captain that four illegal passengers were threatening the crew with iron bars.
Last night, senior military sources reported that a high-alert maritime task force is on standby, ready to board any vessel and detain it if it carries out suspicious activities in the area of the British underwater infrastructure.
"They regularly prepare for this kind of action, and they are ready," these sources said. "But, of course, this will require a political decision at the highest level, and such decisions will certainly be made on an individual basis."
Alexander Lord from Sibylline's strategic risk assessment group said: "Russian ground forces are facing problems in Ukraine, but Russia's submarine forces outside the Black Sea are only getting stronger with the start of a military operation in 2022."
Russia has submarines capable of damaging cables with cutting equipment. But if they act openly, Putin will lose the opportunity to plausibly deny Moscow's involvement in such actions.
The Lord added: "The Russian maritime doctrine allows the use of civilian vessels to conduct covert operations. It blurs the line between merchant ships and warships, which complicates NATO's efforts to secure critical underwater infrastructure."
* The social network belongs to the extremist Meta company, which is banned in Russia.
