London — British and Norwegian forces led a week-long operation to intercept Russian submarines suspected of “malignant activity” in the North Atlantic, Britain’s military said on Thursday.
Defense Secretary John Healey said a frigate, planes and hundreds of personnel monitored a Russian attack sub and two spy submarines near undersea infrastructure north of Britain. He said the Russian ships finally left after the operation that lasted more than a month.
Healey said his message to Russia was, “We see your activity on our cables and pipelines and you should know that any attempts to harm them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences.”
Norway’s defense and foreign ministries, as well as representatives of the armed forces, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
British officials have tried to keep Russia in the international spotlight while the world’s attention focuses on the conflict in the Middle East. He has also emphasized the overlap between the conflicts there and in Ukraine and said that Russia has supplied drone parts and other aid to Iran.
“Putin would like to distract us from the Middle East,” Healey told a news conference, but Russia remains the main threat to Britain and its allies.
“We will not take our eyes off Putin,” he said.
In late March, Britain said its forces were prepared to seize ships suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil shipping vessels in violation of international sanctions over Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Previously, Britain had only helped France and the US monitor ships before they boarded them.
“We are prepared to take action against the ships,” Healy said.
