Off the rugged northern coast of Scotland, a tense maritime drama has been playing out between the United Kingdom and Russia—one that has all the makings of a modern spy thriller, but with real-world stakes for national security and global stability. The focal point? The Russian ship Yantar, which Moscow insists is a research vessel, but which British officials and defence experts have long suspected is a sophisticated spy ship capable of mapping, disrupting, or even sabotaging the UK’s vital undersea infrastructure.
According to Sky News and BBC, the situation escalated in mid-November 2025 when the Yantar, loitering just outside the edge of British territorial waters, allegedly directed lasers at Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots sent to monitor its movements. Defence Secretary John Healey did not mince words, calling the incident “deeply dangerous” and warning, “We see you, we know what you’re doing, and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.” This was the first time such an action from the Yantar had been directed against British RAF aircraft, and the UK government’s response was swift and public.
Healey, in a speech delivered at No 9 Downing Street and reported by Reuters, revealed that the Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset, along with RAF P-8 patrol planes, had been closely tracking the Yantar as it hovered over critical undersea infrastructure. He noted that the ship had entered the UK’s wider waters—including the exclusive economic zone, which stretches 200 nautical miles from shore—twice in 2025 alone. The laser incident, which affected one RAF crew member but caused no injuries or damage, was described as a clear escalation in what British officials see as a campaign of “grey warfare.”
The stakes are high. As BBC analysis points out, more than 90% of the UK’s data—including trillions of dollars in financial transactions—flows through a network of undersea cables that crisscross the seabed. These cables, along with vital oil and gas pipelines connecting Britain to North Sea neighbors, are largely undefended and have become a strategic pressure point in the contest between Russia and the West. Retired Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe explained, “The most obvious one is they sit above our cables and our critical undersea infrastructure and they nose around in the cables that transfer up to $7tn worth of financial transactions every day between us and America alone.”
British officials are under no illusions about the Yantar’s capabilities. Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, described the vessel as “part of Russia’s underwater warfare capability,” telling Sky News, “I think it can launch submersibles from under its keel. And they’re probably recceing undersea connections into the UK. We have a lot of strategic links; whether that’s data links, electricity cables, gas links. There’s a real vulnerability there.” Dearlove warned that the Royal Navy might be forced to “fire a warning shot, or maybe cut it off in such a way as to get it to change course” if the Yantar ventured too close, though he emphasized that defence chiefs would want to avoid unnecessary confrontation.
For its part, Russia has flatly denied the accusations. The Russian embassy in London dismissed the UK’s claims as “Russophobic” and “whipping up militaristic hysteria,” insisting that the Yantar is a research ship operating in international waters with no interest in British undersea cables. “We are not interested in British underwater communications,” the embassy stated, urging the UK to “refrain from destructive steps that exacerbate the crisis phenomena on the European continent.” President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has offered no direct response, remaining silent on the incident during a recent AI conference in Moscow.
The Yantar is not just any ship. According to BBC, it is operated by Russia’s secretive Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI), which reports directly to the Russian defence ministry. The vessel is equipped with high-tech communications gear and can deploy remotely piloted miniature submarines capable of diving thousands of meters to the sea floor. These submersibles are believed to be able to map, tap, or even cut undersea cables and pipelines, or plant sabotage devices that could be activated in a time of war. British defence officials have warned that the Yantar’s mission is to conduct surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in wartime.
Incidents like this are not isolated. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO has reported a spike in Russian naval and aerial incursions, from warplanes entering Estonian airspace to drone flights across Europe. The Yantar itself was previously tracked in January 2025 as it sailed through the English Channel, prompting the Royal Navy to dispatch two vessels in response. In December, Finnish authorities seized a Russia-linked ship suspected of intentionally damaging an undersea power cable in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia—evidence, British officials say, of a broader Russian campaign to probe and exploit Western vulnerabilities through hybrid and underwater warfare.
To counter these threats, the UK is ramping up its own defences. Defence Secretary Healey has announced a £1.5 billion investment plan to develop 13 sites for manufacturing munitions and explosives, expected to create over 1,000 jobs and break ground in 2026. This comes as part of a broader commitment to increase defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035, more than doubling last year’s 2.3% and bringing the UK in line with other major NATO allies. “This is a new era of threat. It demands a new era for defence, an era of hard power, strong allies and of sure diplomacy,” Healey declared. “And as the threat grows, Britain must step up, and we are.”
The Royal Navy is also experimenting with new countermeasures, including a vessel named Proteus designed to protect undersea infrastructure. Yet, as critics warn, much of the damage to Britain’s coastal security may already have been done, and the challenge of defending thousands of miles of undersea cables remains immense.
Amid the heightened tensions, the UK government has made it clear that it will not be deterred. “Russia does not want us to know what they are doing. They do not want us to know what the Yantar is up to. It does not want the world to know what it is doing, but we will not be deterred. We will not let the Yantar go unchallenged as it attempts to survey our infrastructure,” Armed Forces Secretary Alistair Carns told MPs, according to Sky News.
As the Yantar lingers on the edge of UK waters, the world watches to see how this high-stakes game of cat and mouse will unfold. For now, Britain’s message to Moscow is unmistakable: the days of unchallenged grey-zone operations are over, and any further provocations will be met with resolve and readiness.
