Britain warns Putin about Russian submarines: We see you, any attack on cables will have serious consequences

The militaries of the United Kingdom and Norway led an operation to deter Russian submarines suspected of "malign activity" in the North Atlantic, the British defense secretary has announced.

John Healey said a frigate, aircraft and hundreds of personnel monitored a Russian attack submarine and two spy submarines near underwater infrastructure north of the United Kingdom.

He said the Russian ships eventually left after the operation that lasted more than a month.

Healey said his message to Russia was "we see your activity on our cables and pipelines and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences."

According to Healey, "Putin would like us to be distracted from the Middle East," but Russia is the main threat to the United Kingdom and its allies.

"We will not take our eyes off Putin," he said.

In late March, the United Kingdom declared that its military was ready to seize ships suspected of being part of a "shadow fleet" of Russian ships transporting oil, in violation of international sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Russia is said to have built a flotilla of old oil tankers with murky ownership to circumvent sanctions imposed by the EU, as well as the US and the G7 group of nations, due to aggression in Ukraine in 2022.

To President Putin, I say, we see you. We see your activity over our cables and pipelines. You should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences.' John Healey says the UK has detected 'increased Russian activity in the Atlantic' pic.twitter.com/8UlRMMx3Wy

- Sky News (@SkyNews) April 9, 2026