British Defense Secretary John Healey said all options are on the table after a Russian spy ship operating off the coast of Scotland aimed a laser at a Royal Air Force plane that was sent to monitor its actions.
The spy ship Yantar is believed to be mapping the United Kingdom’s network of undersea cables used to transmit data, communications, and electricity. It’s the second time this year that the Yantar has skirted the edge of British territorial waters, officials said.
“My message to Russia and to [President Vladimir] Putin is this: ‘We see you. We know what you’re doing, and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready,” Mr. Healey said Wednesday at a press conference in London.
International tensions also spiked in Eastern Europe on Wednesday as Poland accused Russia of blowing up a railway line over the weekend linking Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to the border with Ukraine. Polish officials said Moscow hired two pro-Russian Ukrainians to carry out the act.
“Blowing up the rail track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage targeting directly the security of the Polish state and its civilians,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the explosion. “This route is also crucially important for delivering aid to Ukraine.”
Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, ordered the closure of Russia’s last consulate still operating in the country in response to the explosion.
“It was not only an act of sabotage … but an act of state terrorism, for the intention to cause human casualties was clear,” Mr. Sikorski said Wednesday in an address to the Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s parliament. “This will be met with our response, not only diplomatic, which we will announce in the days to come.”
British officials sent a Royal Navy frigate and an RAF P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft to track the Yantar’s movement. Mr. Healey said the use of lasers against British military aircraft was “deeply dangerous.” It prompted him to modify any potential UK military response.
“I’ve changed the Navy’s rules of engagement so we can follow more closely and monitor more closely the activities of the Yantar when it’s in our wider waters,” he said. “We take it seriously.”
The Russian embassy in London insisted that the Yantar is solely an oceanographic research vessel operating in international waters.
“The endless accusations and suspicions of the British leadership are laughable. Our country’s actions do not affect the interests of the United Kingdom and are not aimed at undermining its security,” Russian embassy officials said in a statement on Wednesday. “London, with its Russophobic policies and the escalation of militaristic hysteria, is further degrading European security, creating the conditions for new, dangerous situations.”
British officials said the Yantar is an intelligence collection ship operated by GUGI, the Russian Navy’s Main Directorate of Underwater Research. In November, the Dutch Navy escorted the vessel out of the North Sea, where it had been operating near Dutch territorial waters. The Yantar has also been seen conducting search patterns in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Persian Gulf. The vessel is also believed to have operated in waters near the Caribbean and Brazil.
Mr. Healey said the ongoing naval operation near Scotland’s coast is a stark reminder of the threats facing the West.
“Our world is changing. It is less predictable and more dangerous,” he said. “Just this last year, we have seen Europe’s skies plagued by drone disruptions. We’ve seen Russian incursions into NATO airspace double, and we’ve seen 90,000 cyber attacks on the UK defense system alone.”
Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland and current fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said Europe and the United States need to “face the music” regarding Russia’s territorial ambitions.
“Putin is not interested in doing business with the United States or Europe except on his terms, terms that include a demand for tacit recognition of his empire acquired through the war,” Ambassador Fried said Wednesday in an Atlantic Council essay. “He will not break with China; he will not do a ‘deal’ for peace in Ukraine, except when faced with insurmountable strength.”
Mr. Putin’s aggression against Europe is intended to intimidate the West into “stunned acquiescence” while he seeks to reverse the fall of the Soviet and Russian empires, Mr. Fried said.
This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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