The British Royal Navy announced on Saturday that two Russian spy ships were detected in the English Channel.
The Russian corvette RFN Stoikiy and tanker Yelnya were sailing west through Dover when the British military intercepted them.
Always ready, always watching#RoyalNavy warships @hmssevern and @HMSSomerset carried out two interceptions in a fortnight of Russian vessels in waters near the UK, watching every move and operating closely with #NATO allies to protect our waterways.
https://t.co/p0uIoJVEq3 pic.twitter.com/MC7LLB7LQY
— Royal Navy (@RoyalNavy) November 24, 2025
The interception happened after an incident on Nov. 19, when a Russian spy ship, Yantar, was reported near the coast of Scotland and was seen using laser equipment to disrupt Royal Air Force pilots tracking its movements.
British Secretary of State for Defense John Healey referred to the Russian ship operations in the region as “deeply dangerous” and sent a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We see you. We know what you’re doing. We are ready,” Healey said.
After being intercepted by the Royal Navy’s ships, which are made for escorting “passing foreign warships, mount[ing] fishing vessel inspections and defend[ing] the UK border,” the spy ships rerouted back to Russia.
The Royal Navy handed over monitoring responsibilities to a NATO ally after the ships left British waters. The U.K. ship “continued to observe from a distance and remained ready to respond to any unexpected activity,” they said.
This incident was not the first time the Stoikiy was reported in U.K. waters. The Royal Navy had to dispatch two vessels and an air squadron in May to meet the Russian warship as it cruised through the English Channel to meet two Russian merchant ships returning from the Mediterranean.
There has been a 30% increase in Russian vessels threatening U.K. waters in the past two years, the British government said in a press release on Monday.
RUSSIA DEFENDS SENDING WARSHIPS THROUGH ENGLISH CHANNEL
Healey considers the frequency of Russian ships being reported off the U.K. coast to be an act of “Russian aggression right across the board,” which he claimed has affected Europe as a whole, not just Ukraine.
At a press conference last week, Healey added that he had changed the Royal Navy’s rules of engagement for it to follow the Russian ships more closely “when it is in our wider waters.”
