UK sends military to protect undersea cables from Russian subs

UK Defence Minister John Healey announced that the country deployed military vessels to safeguard cables and pipelines from potential attacks by Russian submarines, which spent over a month operating in and around British waters earlier this year.

Britain accused Russia of using the distraction of events in the Middle East to try to conduct the covert operation in the High North maritime region, home to key shipping routes and critical infrastructure such as undersea cables, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Mr Healey said British forces and allies including Norway tracked and deterred malign activity by the Russian vessels, adding that the submarines had now left the area and there were no signs of damage to underwater infrastructure.

Revealing the operation publicly at a press conference, Mr Healey said the intent was to show Russian President Vladimir Putin the activity had been detected.

"To President Putin, I say 'We see you. We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences'," he said.

"Our armed forces left them in no doubt that they were being monitored, that their movements were not covert, as President Putin planned, and that their attempted secret operation had been exposed."

Russia's embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow has previously denied allegations of involvement in a serious of incidents in which European countries' cables were damaged.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli