‘we will not shy away from robust” – United Kingdom Defence Secretary John Healey sends a direct message to Russia President Vladimir Putin over spy ship

The defence minister told MPs that the Royal Navy has been keeping an eye on a Russian spy ship that was seen in UK waters earlier this week.

John Healey said that the Yantar ship was used to map the UK’s important underwater infrastructure and gather information.

He said that what happened was “yet another example of Russia’s growing aggression.”

Healey said: “I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you’re doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”

Russia calls Yantar an oceanographic study ship, and the Ministry of Defence of the country runs it.

Western countries have kept an eye on the ship as it has worked in European waters, and they think that one of its jobs has been to map underwater wires.

They also think that Russia has been doing more of this since it invaded Ukraine in a big way.

Along with monitoring gear, the ship can also fly submersible drones that can reach the bottom of the ocean.

The defence secretary’s comments were called “absolutely baseless” by the Russian embassy in London, according to the state-owned TASS news agency.

The embassy claimed “anti-Russian alarmism” from “the British establishment and the media under its control” served to “deliberately stir up tension in regions of the Baltic and North Seas” .

Power cables and pipelines that run under the ocean are important for supplying energy, and more than 95% of internet data is also protected by cables that run under the ocean.