Royal Navy warships and a helicopter spent three days monitoring Russian Navy vessels and sanctioned cargo ships in an “intense” operation in the North Sea and English Channel.
HMS Duncan, HMS St Albans and HMS Severn used radars to watch 4 vessels final week, whereas a Merlin helicopter offered surveillance from the sky.
“Since that successful operation, we have seen Russian shadow fleet vessels increasingly forced to change their routes, imposing significant cost and delays to their journeys,” Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, stated.
It comes as information reveals Royal Navy exercise to watch Russian actions is up 25% to this point this 12 months in comparison with 2025.
During the August operation, the Royal Navy warships together with a Type 45 destroyer and a Type 23 frigate, tracked Russian destroyer Admiral Levchenko because it escorted sanctioned cargo vessels General Skobelev and Sparta south by the North Sea and into the English Channel.
The Royal Navy stated Russia was “forced” to reply with “costly military resources” together with the frigate Neustrashimy.
An announcement stated a Nato ally then took over monitoring off the coast of France, with out specifying the nation.
The operation comes after Royal Marine Commandos boarded a Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker in the English Channel in June.
Marines joined by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers, with the assist of the RAF, intercepted and boarded the Smyrtos in a six-hour operation – the primary of its sort by UK armed forces.
NCA officers arrested an Indian nationwide, 38, on suspicion of sanctions offences underneath the Russia Regulations and he was taken into custody.