The British Royal Navy intercepted two Russian warships transiting through the English Channel sometime in the past two weeks, British media reported Sunday, citing the U.K. Defense Ministry.
The corvette RFN Stoikiy and the tanker Yelnya, which are both part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, were traveling west through the Dover Strait when they were tracked by HMS Severn, an offshore patrol vessel.
After the initial interception, Severn handed off monitoring duties to an unnamed NATO ally off the coast of northwestern France, the BBC reported.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said Severn continued to observe the Russian ships “from a distance” and remained ready to respond to “any unexpected activity.”
The encounter comes amid what British officials describe as a sharp increase in Russian naval movements near the United Kingdom. Defense Secretary John Healey said last week that such activity has risen 30% over the past two years.
On Wednesday, Healey announced the deployment of a Royal Navy frigate and Royal Air Force aircraft to track the Russian vessel Yantar north of Scotland, accusing the ship of using “deeply dangerous” lasers to disrupt RAF pilots.
Russia’s Embassy in London dismissed the accusations as “provocative,” insisting its ships operate legally in international waters and “pose no threat to Britain’s security.”
The embassy urged the British government to “refrain from taking destructive steps that would only aggravate the crisis on the European continent.”
Britain and other NATO countries have expressed growing concern over the past year about potential threats that Russia poses to sensitive offshore infrastructure, coming amid alleged sabotage of undersea telecommunications and power cables.
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