By Al Jazeera
Publication Date: 2025-11-20 02:50:00
Defense Secretary John Healey condemns Yantar’s actions as “deeply dangerous” and says Britain is ready to react.
Published on November 20, 2025
The UK has warned it is prepared to use “military options” if necessary after a Russian spy ship that has spent weeks at the edge of British waters directed lasers at British pilots sent to monitor the ship.
In a speech in London on Wednesday, British Defense Secretary John Healey condemned the Yantar’s actions against Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots as “deeply dangerous” and said Britain was prepared to react depending on the ship’s next move.
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The Defense Secretary said a UK naval frigate and RAF P-8 aircraft had been deployed to monitor the ship, which is designed to gather intelligence and map undersea cables, as it sailed in waters north of Scotland.
“My message to Russia and (President Vladimir) Putin is this: We see you. We know what you are doing. And if the Yantar heads south this week, we are ready,” Healey said.
“This is the first time we have had this Yantar action directed against the British RAF. We take it very seriously,” he added.
Healey went on to say that he had changed the navy’s rules of engagement to allow it to “more closely monitor” the ship’s activities.
“We have military options ready in case Yantar changes course,” he said.
British air and naval forces routinely monitor potential threats near their territorial waters and airspace. Raids by Russian ships and submarines have become more frequent since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In a statement responding to Healey’s accusations, the Russian embassy in London accused the British government of being “Russophobic” and “fomenting militarist hysteria.”
Responding to what he described as “endless accusations”, he said Moscow’s “actions do not affect the interests of the United Kingdom and are not aimed at undermining its security.”
“We are not interested in British submarine communications,” he said, urging Britain to “refrain from taking destructive measures that exacerbate crisis phenomena on the European continent.”
The Yantar, which is designed to conduct peacetime surveillance and wartime sabotage, according to British officials, also investigated UK defenses in January while sailing through the English Channel.
The Royal Navy sent two ships to monitor the spy ship, which Healey said was “loitering over the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure” before departing for the Mediterranean.
Kremlin-linked vessels, part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of sanctions-evading oil tankers, have been accused of carrying out attacks on pipelines and cables as a new form of hybrid underwater warfare.
In December, the Finnish authorities He seized a ship linked to Russia. on suspicion of intentionally damaging an underwater electrical cable in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia.
Healey’s warning also came as he argued for greater defense spending in the face of threats from Russia, China and Iran ahead of Britain’s new budget presentation on November 26.
In June, Britain pledged to increase defense spending to 5 percent of its gross domestic product by 2035, more than double last year’s 2.3 percent and in line with most other NATO nations.
As part of that, Healey said the UK plans to develop “13 potential sites” to manufacture munitions and explosives as part of a 1.5 billion pound (about $1.95 billion) investment plan to create more than 1,000 jobs.
“This is a new era of threats. It demands a new era for defence, an era of hard power, strong allies and confident diplomacy,” Healey said. “And as the threat grows, Britain must step up, and we do.”