Two Russian ships caught by the Royal Navy sailing the English Channel

A Russian warship and a tanker were spotted crossing the English Channel.

HMS Severn intercepted RFN Stoikiy, a corvette, and Yelnya, a tanker, as they all sailed west through the Strait of Dover into the English Channel over the past two weeks.

No incident was reported where HMS Severn subsequently transferred control duties to one NATO ally off the coast of Brittany but continued to observe from a distance, the Defense Ministry said.

Last week John Healey revealed that the Russian Yantar, used to map undersea cables, appeared ‘on the edge of British waters’ for the second time this year.

After a Royal Navy frigate and RAF P8 aircraft were sent to monitor the ship, Russian crew members took the “very dangerous” move of pointing lasers at the pilots, he said.

Healey told the news conference that his message to Russia and its President Vladimir Putin was: “We see you, we know what you are doing, and if the Yantar heads south this week, we will be ready.”

He added that this was the second time this year the ship had been deployed in British waters.

The defense secretary highlighted the brief war between Iran and Israel, recent revelations about Chinese spies in parliament and drones in the skies over Europe as evidence that Britain is in a ‘new era of threat’.

He said: ‘It requires a new era for defense, an era of hard power, strong allies and of certain diplomacy. And as the threat grows, Britain must act, and so we will.”

Earlier this year, two leading experts warned Subway that Britain ‘sleepwalked into a bloody ambush’.

Dr. Simon Bennett of the University of Leicester School of Business suggested that Britain will only become sovereign and free when it wakes up.

Starmer’s refusal to put a deadline on his pledge to spend a greater percentage of GDP on defense “only emboldens Putin”, Dr Bennett said.

“It makes no sense that we have developed a war mentality or that we intend to develop a war economy,” he said.

Chatham House Russian expert Keir Giles agreed, but pointed out that this year’s defense review focused on raising “civilian awareness and resilience.”

He said: ‘It appears they have recognized that there is a fundamental mission to educate the British public and its constituents about the threats they and other British institutions face.

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