Russian ships reportedly in UK waters daily, government confirms

A government minister admitted that since March, sanctioned Russian vessels have entered British waters at least daily following measures to combat the shadow fleet, yet none have been intercepted.

Concern has been growing about repeated incursions into waters around the UK, with a Russian attack submarine and two spy submersibles tracked over critical undersea cables in the North Atlantic for several weeks, News.Az reports, citing The Independent.

The joint committee for national security strategy questioned members of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on Monday to follow up a review in September that claimed the government was “too timid” in protecting undersea cables from state actors.

The MoD announced new powers in March for armed forces to board sanctioned boats crossing into British waters as part of measures to tackle the flow and power of Russia’s shadow fleet vessels.

Liberal Democrats MP Mike Martin, questioning minister for armed forces Alistair Carns, said that 63 sanctioned Russian vessels had crossed through British waters since the new measures had been put in place.

“In March... the government declared that it was going to be rolling out this programme to try and tackle the Russian shadow fleet, and since then... 63 sanctioned Russian vessels have transited UK territorial waters.”

“That’s one a day,” he said. “To my knowledge, we haven’t interdicted any of them. Is that correct?”

Mr Carns did not dispute the figure as he responded: “Yeah, so what I would say... We haven't interdicted them. What I would say, each sanctioned vessel has its own parameters.”

The government has sanctioned 544 Russian shadow fleet vessels, which Mr Carns claimed each one has “its different legal and policy parameters, depending on where it's flagged, depending on UNCLOS, depending on what waters it's in.”

The minister said he had spoken to lawyers almost every time a ship had been flagged in British waters and “if the opportunity presents itself and the parameters are met from a legal, policy, and operational perspective, we will board the vessel”.

The number of sanctioned vessels referred to by Mr Martin, a former Army officer, is far lower than recent estimations from the BBC, which reported 184 sanctioned ships crossing British waters between 25 March - when legislation was announced - and 3pm BST on 11 May, according to MarineTraffic data. The i reported in April that more than 120 sanctioned tankers had crossed British waters since the new powers were brought in.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli