Healey says Russian submarines ran covert operation near UK cables and pipelines

# Healey says Russian submarines ran covert operation near UK cables and pipelines

*Event date: 2026-04-09*

Defence Secretary John Healey has said three Russian submarines carried out a covert operation in waters north of the UK, in an episode that he said underlined the vulnerability of British undersea infrastructure.

Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, Healey said the submarines were monitored 24/7 by UK forces during a month-long operation over cables and pipelines in the Atlantic north of Britain. He said a warship and aircraft were deployed in response and that the vessels have now left UK waters and headed back north.

Healey said there was no evidence of damage to the country’s undersea cables or pipelines. But he paired that reassurance with a warning to Vladimir Putin, saying the UK had seen the activity and that any attempt to damage the infrastructure would not be tolerated and would carry serious consequences.

The account is the latest sign of concern around the security of subsea networks that carry data and energy. Britain relies heavily on these systems, and the BBC’s reporting in the live update noted that more than 90% of day-to-day internet traffic travels through undersea cables rather than satellites. That dependence creates what security experts describe as a hard-to-patrol vulnerability.

The submarines identified by Healey included an Akula attack submarine and two Gugi spy submarines. Gugi, the Russian defence ministry’s deep-sea research programme, has long been associated with specialist vessels and submersibles that can examine seabed infrastructure, deploy monitoring devices and, in some cases, cut cables. BBC Monitoring described the unit as the “underwater spetsnaz” and said the operation appeared more sophisticated and clandestine than previous incidents.

Healey also used the announcement to say the UK is stepping up its own response. He said the government would spend an extra £100m on submarine-hunting aircraft and would launch the Atlantic Bastion programme, described as a British-built hybrid naval force.

The government’s warning comes against a wider backdrop of concern about undersea infrastructure. The BBC live coverage referred to a 2025 inquiry that identified Russia, China and non-state actors as threats to cables and noted that the UK’s national security strategy committee was not confident the country could prevent such attacks or recover within an acceptable period if they happened.

That context matters because the threat is not only theoretical. The live coverage pointed to previous attacks on cables and pipelines, mainly in the Baltic, and to the broader strategic role that undersea networks play in communications and energy supply. Russia has repeatedly been accused of spying around such infrastructure before, and the BBC noted that the latest episode seemed to show a more deliberate effort to understand where those systems are and how resilient they may be.

Healey’s message was designed to be both a warning and a deterrent. The submarines have gone, the UK says it has seen them, and there is no current evidence of damage. But the political message was clear: London is treating undersea infrastructure as a live security front, not a background technical issue.

There is also a wider strategic point in the timing and framing of the announcement. By disclosing the operation publicly, Healey is trying to deny Moscow the ability to keep such activity ambiguous. The message is that Britain and its allies are watching the seabed as well as the surface, and that covert movement in the Atlantic is now part of the deterrence picture.