In a stark warning to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, UK Defense Minister John Healey highlighted potential “serious repercussions” on Thursday, following the disclosure of an extended military maneuver designed to counter Russian interference in the North Sea.
“President Putin, be aware that we are monitoring your actions around our cables and pipelines. Any attempt to compromise them will be met with significant consequences,” Healey asserted.
The minister outlined a strategic operation that included the deployment of a Royal Navy frigate, a Royal Air Force surveillance aircraft, and hundreds of personnel. This force was mobilized to deter a group of Russian submarines spotted near underwater cables within the UK’s economic exclusion zone.
British Defense Secretary John Healey made the announcement concerning recent UK defense maneuvers at 9 Downing Street, London, on Thursday, April 9, 2026. (Yui Mok/Pool Photo via AP)
Healey identified one of the submarines as a nuclear-powered Akula-class, alongside two reconnaissance submarines from Russia’s Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research, known as GUGI. He noted that these submarines were dispatched by Putin to execute hybrid warfare strategies against the UK and its partners.
Norway, one of these allies, participated in the operation aimed at deterring Russian activities, as confirmed by Norwegian Defense Minister Tore O Sandvik in a statement released on Thursday.
“Norway has participated in a coordinated military operation with our allies to send a clear message: covert activities in our waters will not be tolerated,” Sandvik wrote.
The submarines left U.K. waters after a protracted period of monitoring from the U.K. and Norway, and there is no evidence of damage to any underwater infrastructure, Healey said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.K.’s Defense Department for more information.
The Russian incursion marked the second time in less than six months that the U.K. detected Russian seacraft near its territorial waters. Healey announced a similar military operation in November after Russia deployed the spy ship Yantar to the North Sea in 2025.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting to discuss the situation in Dagestan hit by severe flood via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Healey also cited this year’s incident as an example of why the U.K. hasn’t sent troops to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf key to global energy markets that Iran has choked off in recent weeks.
“I understand people questioning why all UK military assets and personnel have not been deployed to deal with it. But that is not in Britain’s national interest,” he said, later calling Russia “the primary threat to the UK and to NATO.”
President Donald Trump has criticized NATO allies and the organization itself for not acceding to requests to help open the Strait of Hormuz.
“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” he wrote in a Thursday morning Truth Social post.
Russian personnel walk on the gangway to Russian Navy submarine RFS Petropavlosvsk-Kamchatskiy, which is currently on a port visit at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026 (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
The U.K., while holding a planning meeting on how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the Iran War is over, initially refused to let the U.S. use a British air base to launch military strikes against Iran.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer eventually allowed the U.S. to launch “defensive strikes” from Royal Air Force bases after Trump slammed him as “not Winston Churchill.”
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