Barney Davis
Published November 23, 2025 11:10pm
Updated November 23, 2025 11:10pm
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The deck of the HMS Severn looks out toward the Russian corvette RFN Stoikiy off the UK coast. (Picture: United Kingdom Ministry of Defence via AP)
A Russian warship and a tanker were spotted sailing through the English Channel.
The HMS Severn intercepted the RFN Stoikiy, a corvette and Yelnya, a tanker, as they all sailed west through the Dover Strait into the English Channel over the past two weeks.
There was no incident reported with the HMS Severn later handing over monitoring duties to a NATO ally off the coast of Brittany, but continued to observe from a distance, the Ministry of Defence said.
Last week John Healey revealed that Russia’s Yantar, which is used to map undersea cables, appeared ‘on the edge of UK waters’ for the second time this year.
After a Royal Navy frigate and RAF P8 planes were sent to keep track of the ship, Russian crew members took the ‘deeply dangerous’ move of pointing lasers at the pilots, he said.
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HMS Severn, lower section, is seen tracking the Russian corvette RFN Stoikiy off the UK coast. (Picture: United Kingdom Ministry of Defence via AP)
The ministry reported a 30 per cent increase in Russian vessels “threatening” UK waters in the past two years. (Picture: MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Wire)
Healey told the press conference his message to Russia and its president Vladimir Putin was: ‘We see you, we know what you’re doing, and if the Yantar travels south this week we are ready.’
He added that this was the second time the vessel had been deployed to UK waters this year.
The Defence Secretary highlighted the brief Iran-Israel war, recent revelations about Chinese spies in Parliament, and drones in the skies over Europe as evidence the UK is in a ‘new era of threat’.
He said: ‘It demands a new era for defence, an era of hard power, strong allies and of sure diplomacy. And as the threat grows, Britain must step up, and we are.’
Earlier this year, two leading experts warned Metro that the UK was ‘sleepwalking into a bloody ambush’.
Dr Simon Bennett from the University of Leicester School of Business suggested the UK may not emerge sovereign and free unless it wakes up.
Starmer’s refusal to set a deadline on his commitment to spend a larger percentage of GDP on defence only ‘emboldens Putin’, Dr Bennett said.
‘There is 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 this year’s defence review did focus on raising ‘civil awareness and resilience’.
He said: ‘It seems they’ve recognised that there is a fundamental mission of educating Britain’s public and its voters as to the threats facing them and other UK institutions.
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