Transcript of UK warns Putin after Russian spy ship returns to British waters | BBC News

Now have a look at this. This is a slice of 1 of thousands of underwater cables on the seabed across the world. This 1 is a submarine power cable, a heavy 1 at that, and it is used to carry electric power between countries or wind farms to the shore. These they're the small disk of the of the, conductors, and it also carries fiber optics as well. Now these are absolutely vital to our country's infrastructure.

And the reason that I'm showing you this is because we've just discovered that these cables led to an encounter between a Royal Navy Submarine and a Russian spy ship off the coast of Britain. Our defense correspondent, Jonathan Beale, is here to explain more.

Thanks, Sophie. Britain's long suspected that Russia has been mapping critical undersea cables with concerns they could be cut or sabotage. Those fears have only increased with Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. And this is 1 of the vessels Britain believes has been doing that clandestine work. Tractured in 2018 by a Royal Navy warship.

Russia describes Yantar as a research vessel. The Ministry of Defense here calls it a spy ship. Yanta has once again been tracked near UK waters. On November 10th, it was off the coast of Cornwall. 4 days later, it was in the Irish Sea, said to be hovering close to cables between the UK and Ireland.

At the time, she was being monitored by a number of Royal Navy vessels. But secretly, the Russian ship was also being tracked by a British submarine. And in a highly unusual move, that submarine surfaced. Defense sources say the submarine verbally warned the Russian ship that it knew what it was doing. And today, the defense secretary said this was part of new, more robust rules of engagement.

And I also want president Putin to hear this message. We see you. We know what you're doing, and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.

Now there are thousands of miles of undersea cables connecting both Europe and North America. They carry more than 90% of the world's Internet traffic, part of Europe's critical national infrastructure, which could be targeted. And in the Baltic Sea, Russia suspected of using merchant ships, a so called shadow fleet, to sabotage those cables, something Moscow denies. But over the past 2 months, there have been several incidents where undersea cables here have been damaged. The most recent involving this oil tanker, the Eagle s.

Last month, Finland boarded and then impounded the vessel. It's accused of dragging its anchor for more than 50 miles. The question, was it deliberate? But in response, Britain and its NATO allies have said they're now stepping up their monitoring and patrols around Europe's critical undersea cables. Sophie.