The Royal Navy’s patrol vessel HMS Severn has been shadowing two Russian warships in the English Channel. The Portsmouth-based HMS Severn intercepted the RFN Stoikiy and a tanker vessel, said the Ministry of Defence in London.
The monitoring operation is speculated to have taken place over the last 2 weeks.
The River-class offshore vessel formed part of an allied operation in a round-the-clock mission and handed over duties to another NATO ally off the coast of Brittany.
The MOD said HMS Severn was ready to respond to any unexpected activity.
This latest encounter is not the first time Russia’s RFN Stoikiy has entered British waters.
In May, two vessels and the 814 Naval Air Squadron were dispatched to shadow the warship as it sailed through the Channel to meet the Sparta IV and General Skobelev.
Last week it emerged that Yantar, the Russian spy ship, was spotted off the coast of Scotland, where it fired lasers at an RAF P-8 Poseidon submarine hunter plane that had been sent to monitor it in an attempt to blind the pilots.
There were no injuries sustained by the British pilots, and there was no damage to the planes.
