With a rhetoric reminiscent of the Falklands War, which pitted the United Kingdom against Argentina 44 years ago, British Defense Minister John Healey declared today that London is prepared to take "military options" if the Russian Navy spy ship Yantar enters British territorial waters. we see you, we know what you're doing, and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready" Healey said.
The Yantar yesterday blinded the pilots of a British Air Force maritime patrol aircraft monitoring its course with a laser when the ship was on the edge of the northernmost point of the UK's territorial waters. The lasers used by the Russian ship have been deemed powerful enough to cause injuries to the aircraft crew. This is an action that the UK considers hostile, although the aircraft crew does not appear to have been harmed.
The UK Ministry of Defense has ordered the country's warships to approach the Yantar more closely, and in the event that the Russian ship engages in aggressive acts again, to respond appropriately, although it has not specified what that entails.
The ship has been at sea in the North Sea for several weeks, usually within the two-hundred-mile economic interest zone of countries but without entering territorial waters, which only extend twelve miles from the coast. This does not mean that it has not engaged in provocative movements. According to the British press, the navies of Belgium and the Netherlands have had to escort the ship when it dangerously approached that twelve-mile limit. Subsequently, the Yantar headed north and west, entering the British economic interest zone and skirting its territorial waters, triggering the current crisis.
The appearance of the Russian spy ship has raised alarms in the British defense establishment because the Yantar not only has capabilities for collecting information but also has equipment for carrying out sabotage, especially against the delicate infrastructure of undersea cables that connect the UK to the rest of the world. The ship, which has both manned and remotely operated mini-submarines, has been accused of participating in espionage and sabotage actions in areas as far apart as the French Mediterranean coast and Brazil.
The Yantar, built 15 years ago, is one of the jewels of the Russian Navy. The ship is designed for its equipment to work up to seven kilometers deep and in recent years has shown a concerning interest in the routes of undersea cables through which —not satellites, as is commonly believed— most of the data and content of the Internet travel worldwide. In February, the British Navy displayed a show of force with the ship by surfacing a nuclear submarine following it through the English Channel, visible to the Yantar crew.
Now, the Russian ship is being tracked by a British frigate supported by a refueling tanker. Maritime patrol aircraft are also constantly monitoring it. It is highly likely that a nuclear attack submarine —specialized in actions against other ships— is also keeping tabs on it.