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A Russian spy ship was on the edge of United Kingdom waters, British defense officials said.
John Healey, the U.K.’s defense secretary, said it was the second time the ship, the Yantar, had been deployed to U.K. waters, SKY News reported.
“This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables,” he said during a news conference. “We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF planes to monitor and track this vessel’s every move, during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.”
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Healey warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “We see you, we know what you’re doing and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”
The U.K. plans to build a number of factories to make munitions and military explosives. The first one is expected to break ground next year.
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Healey issued his warning after a report by the Commons Defence Committee, which said the U.K. “lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories” and urged the government to launch a “coordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face,” the news outlet reported.
The Yantar isn’t just part of a naval operation but part of Moscow’s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, which primarily works in surveillance in peacetime and sabotage during conflicts.
“That is why we’ve been determined. Whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it, and we say to Putin, ‘We are ready, and we do that alongside allies,’” said Healey.
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