The United Kingdom and Norway sent a warship, aircraft, and hundreds of soldiers on a month-long mission to monitor and track Russian submarines that were acting suspiciously near critical underwater cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic Ocean, according to the UK military.
On Thursday, UK Defence Secretary John Healey highlighted concerns about "malign activity" involving a Russian attack submarine and two surveillance submarines near underwater infrastructure north of the UK. He stated that the Russian submarines left following the mission, which lasted one month.
Healey asserted that Russia is the primary threat to the UK and its allies, saying, "Putin would want us to be distracted by the Middle East.""We will not take our eyes off Putin," he declared.
Healey wrote to Russia, "We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences."Our armed forces made it clear to them that they were being monitored, that their activities were not clandestine, as President Putin had planned, and that their attempted secret operation had been revealed," he continued.
Healey stated that the Russian operation included an Akula-class assault submarine and two specialist submarines from Moscow's Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI).

British officials have highlighted the link between the Middle Eastern and Ukrainian wars, claiming that Russia is providing Iran with drone parts and other supplies.
Toward the end of March, the United Kingdom announced that its military forces were ready to intercept and capture vessels thought to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet," which are ships that illegally transport Russian oil in violation of international sanctions imposed in reaction to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
This was a significant shift in Britain's role. Until date, the UK's role had been limited to supporting France and the United States in monitoring ships prior to boarding.