- The UK and Norway deployed a warship, aircraft, and personnel to monitor Russian submarines
- Russian submarines acted suspiciously near undersea cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic
- The UK claims Russia supports Iran with drone parts amid overlapping Middle East and Ukraine conflicts.
The UK and Norway sent a warship, aircraft, and hundreds of personnel on a month-long mission to watch and follow Russian submarines that were acting suspiciously near important underwater cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic Ocean, the UK military said.
On Thursday, UK Defence Secretary John Healey expressed suspicions of "malign activity" regarding a Russian attack submarine and two spy submarines near undersea infrastructure north of the UK. He said that the Russian submarines left after the operation, which lasted a month.
Asserting that Russia is the main threat to the UK and its allies, Healey said, "Putin would want us to be distracted by the Middle East."
"We will not take our eyes off Putin," he said.
In a message to Russia, Healey said, "We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences."
"Our armed forces left them in no doubt that they were being monitored, that their movements were not covert, as President Putin planned, and that their attempted secret operation had been exposed", he added.
Healey said the Russian operation involved an Russian Akula class attack submarine and two specialist submarines from Moscow's Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI).
British officials have highlighted the overlap between the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and claimed that Russia is supporting Iran with drone parts and more.
Towards the end of March, the UK announced that its armed forces were prepared to intercept and seize vessels believed to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet", which are ships covertly transporting Russian oil in defiance of international sanctions imposed in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
This marked a major change in Britain's role. Until now, the UK had restricted its role to assisting France and the United States in monitoring ships prior to boarding.
