The British Royal Navy tracked three Russian submarines suspected of surveying cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic, eventually forcing them to withdraw and return to their bases.
It was the latest “gray zone” skirmish with a Kremlin increasingly prepared to wage hostile, often covert, acts to achieve political objectives while remaining below the threshold of open war.
British warships and military aircraft identified a Russian attack submarine entering international waters in the North Atlantic several weeks ago and began tracking it around the clock, Defense Secretary John Healey told reporters on Thursday.
After determining the Akula-class attack submarine was deployed as a distraction, Britain worked closely with allies, including Norway, to track other Russian subs conducting “nefarious activity” over critical undersea infrastructure in other locations, he said.
The other Russian vessels were from the Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research, known as GUGI. The British Royal Navy deployed one of its frigates, the HMS St. Albans, along with Merlin helicopters and support ships to track the attack submarine as it operated near British territorial waters.
“I want to pay tribute to the U.K. personnel who spent many days tracking these Russian submarines in extremely challenging and treacherous conditions,” Mr. Healey said during a press conference. “While the eyes of many — understandably — were on the Middle East, our British armed forces were simultaneously responding to rising Russian threats north of the U.K.”
Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Sandvik said Russia has ramped up its undersea covert activity in recent weeks. He said it underscores Moscow’s “persistent ambition” to threaten the interests of Norway and its allies.
“This demonstrates Russia’s ongoing effort to develop capabilities for mapping — and potentially sabotaging — Western critical infrastructure at significant depths,” Mr. Sandvik said in a statement.
Undersea cables are considered the nervous system of the global economy and have become a flashpoint of modern warfare. Analysts say at least 99% of all international data traffic, including trillions of dollars in daily financial transactions, travels through cables on the ocean floor.
The Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy deployed sonobuoys — small, tube-shaped acoustic sensors — to detect and track submarines.
British officials described GUGI as Russia’s long-running military program to develop capabilities to survey underwater infrastructure that could be damaged or destroyed during a future conflict.
“While the Russian attack submarine has now headed back towards Russia, the U.K. has kept both naval vessels and aircraft ready to respond should Russian vessels return,” British officials said. “The U.K. continues to closely monitor the situation and is working closely with allies to track and deter any activity that threatens British interests.”
Russia said the real villain on the high seas is Ukraine. An unidentified military source at the Kremlin told the official TASS news agency that Kyiv is preparing to carry out terrorist acts against Russian vessels.
“Norway, by aiding the terrorist activities of the Kyiv regime, is dragging itself into a military conflict with Russia,” the Kremlin source said, TASS reported.
In the first weeks of 2026, the Baltic Sea experienced six power outages. Some were attributed to Russia’s “shadow fleet” of poorly maintained tankers seeking to bypass sanctions on travel.
Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said in June 2023 that Moscow has a “free hand” to take out the undersea communications cables of its enemies. They have become legitimate military targets for Russia, he said, especially after the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline.
“If we proceed from the proven complicity of Western countries in blowing up the Nord Streams, then we have no constraints — even moral — left to prevent us from destroying the ocean floor cable,” said Mr. Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia.
Russian GUGI submarines tested British defenses last year when they sailed near British waters and were tracked by a Royal Navy frigate and a Royal Air Force P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft, officials said.
“We have made it unequivocally clear to Russian authorities that any attempt to target our critical infrastructure will be detected and met with consequences,” Mr. Sandvick said. “It is in no one’s interest to escalate tensions in the High North.”
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