Royal Navy to shadow Russian warships in North Sea under new orders
The Royal Navy has been ordered to shadow Russian warships in the English Channel and North Sea
The Royal Navy has received a call to action to shadow Russian military presence with their vessels and aircraft in the English Channel and North Sea during a four-day surveillance operation centred on President Vladimir Putin's manoeuvres. Amid heightened tensions, Luke Pollard, Minister for the Armed Forces, flagged concerns stating that Russian warships are "increasingly sailing through the English Channel".
The navy has taken steps to bolster its maritime defences, utilising Portsmouth's HMS Duncan, a destroyer, and patrol vessel HMS Mersey to track the RFN Boikiy, a Russian corvette traversing eastwards across the English Channel.
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.
You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.
All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in!
If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Mr Pollard underlined the commitment of the naval forces: "Russian warships are increasingly sailing through the English Channel, and every time they do, a Royal Navy vessel will be keeping an eye on them. I have every confidence, as should the British public, that our Royal Navy will continue to defend our waters and keep our undersea cables safe."
Commander Daniel Lee, at the helm of HMS Duncan, conveyed the importance of their mission: "Escorting foreign warships through waters near the UK is a vital part of our mission to protect our nation and uphold international maritime law. It's a clear demonstration of our commitment to ensuring the safety and security of our seas, which are so important to the lives and livelihoods of the British people."
The Royal Navy commander said: "As a ship's company, we are proud to carry out this duty on behalf of the nation, showcasing our professionalism and readiness to respond to any task required of us.", reports the Mirror.
Royal Navy warship HMS Duncan and a patrol ship tracked a Russian vessel off the coast of Britain.
The Steregushchiy-class corvette was trailed shortly after HMS Trent, alongside Wildcat helicopters from 815 Naval Air Squadron, monitored RFN Admiral Grigorovich through the English Channel.
Duncan was deployed on June 20, meeting the corvette near the southwestern end of the Channel at Ushant, off the French coast, while HMS Mersey took over close to the Isle of Wight 24 hours later. HMS Duncan then withdrew for further training prior to resuming operational duties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
32 minutes ago
- The Independent
Church of England praying for peace but preparing for war
The Church of England is preparing for how it might respond should 'serious conflict' break out, including looking back to the leadership shown by senior religious figures during the Second World War. The Bishop to the Armed Forces has said the Church wants to 'take seriously' the potential challenges ahead, warning that it does not want to be caught short in a similar way to the lack of preparedness there was for the pandemic. The Church's parliament – officially known as the General Synod – will hear from a senior military figure when it meets next month. Brigadier Jaish Mahan, a Christian who served in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan, will address Synod members on the current global climate and the challenges for the UK, as well as speaking of his own experience in the military. A Synod paper states: 'While a conflict directly involving the UK is not an immediate risk, given the very serious impact such a conflict would have on every person in the country, we must be prepared.' Reverend Hugh Nelson, Bishop of St Germans and Bishop to the Armed Forces, said he had been hearing from military personnel for the past two years 'rising concern about the threat of very, very serious conflict, including conflict that involves the UK'. During a briefing with reporters on Thursday, he referenced the Government's national security strategy, published earlier this week, which warned the UK must actively prepare for a 'wartime scenario' on British soil 'for the first time in many years'. Ministers said the UK now finds itself in 'an era in which we face confrontation with those who are threatening our security'. Mr Nelson said: 'As a Church, we want to take seriously those challenges, both to do everything that we can to pray for and work for and advocate for peace, because the kingdom of God is a kingdom of justice and peace, and to face the reality and to put in place, or at least to begin to have conversations towards plans about how the Church might need to respond and to be if there were to be a serious conflict. 'We do not want to be in the situation that we were all in – Church and wider society – pre-pandemic, when those that knew things said there will one day be a pandemic, and none of us had done anything in preparation for that. So we want to take that seriously.' Legislative changes are due to be brought before Synod, which would allow Armed Forces chaplains, when operating in their roles, to minister under an Archbishops' licence without also having to hold diocesan PTO (permission to officiate). The current rules add a serious administrative burden and make it more difficult for chaplains to deploy within the UK at the pace required by their roles, a Synod paper states. Mr Nelson described this as a 'tidying up exercise to enable chaplains to get on and to do what they need to do without having to go through quite a lot of administrative and bureaucratic steps in order to have permission to do that in any particular place'. While he declined to go so far as to say the work was putting the Church on a war footing, he noted that consideration is being given to how religious leaders acted in previous wartime scenarios. He said: 'We're encouraging the Church to pray for peace and to prepare for, or to begin to do some thinking and some work around, what it might mean for us to be a Church in a time of conflict. 'We have looked back at some of the ways in which senior Church leadership – archbishops and bishops – led, the things that they said, particularly in the Second World War.' Resources, including around working with schools on issues of peace, war and conflict, and practical suggestions for making churches hospitable and welcoming to Armed Forces personnel and their families, are expected to be published shortly after Synod. Across the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, there are almost 200 Church of England chaplains, serving as both regulars and reservists. The Church said its chaplains 'have provided spiritual, moral and pastoral care to military personnel and their families for more than 150 years and remain a highly valued part of the Armed Forces, often witnessing to Jesus Christ in complex and difficult contexts.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Ukraine halts Russia's advance in northern Sumy region, commander says
Ukrainian forces have halted Russia's recent advance into the northern Sumy region and have stabilized the front line near the border with Russia, Ukraine's top military commander said Thursday. Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said that Ukrainian successes in Sumy have prevented Russia from deploying about 50,000 Russian troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades, to other areas of the front line. His claim couldn't be independently verified, and Russian officials made no immediate comment. Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and armor. The outnumbered Ukrainian army has relied heavily on drones to keep the Russians back. Months of U.S.-led international efforts to stop the more than three years of fighting have failed. Sumy, the city which is the capital of the Ukrainian region of the same name, had a prewar population of around 250,000. It lies about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front line. Russia's push into the Sumy region earlier this year compelled Ukraine to strengthen its defenses there. A special defense group has been formed to improve security in Sumy and surrounding communities, Syrskyi said. It's focusing on improving fortifications and accelerating construction of defensive barriers. In March, Ukrainian forces withdrew from much of Russia's neighboring Kursk region, parts of which they had controlled after a surprise cross-border attack in August. That retreat enabled Russia to launch a counteroffensive that advanced between 2-12 kilometers (1-7 miles) into Ukrainian territory, according to different estimates. Ukrainian officials say fierce fighting is also taking place in the eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its forces have captured two villages, Novoserhiivka and Shevchenko, in Donetsk. Capturing Shevchenko marked an important stage in Russia's ongoing offensive that is trying to break into Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders Donetsk and is a major industrial center, according to the Defense Ministry. Meanwhile, the two sides continued to launch long-range strikes. Russia's Defense Ministry said that 50 Ukrainian drones were downed over nine regions overnight, including three over the Moscow region. Ukraine's air force said that Russia deployed 41 Shahed and decoy drones across the country overnight, wounding five people. It said that 24 drones were either intercepted or jammed. ___
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Trump must put pressure on Iran to renounce nuclear ambitions
Admiral of the Fleet Lord 'Jacky' Fisher, head of the Royal Navy during the naval race with Germany in the years before the First World War, had a simple prescription for dealing with a dangerous rival: 'Hit first. Hit hard. Keep hitting.' Donald Trump accomplished the first two of these conditions in his attack on Iran's subterranean nuclear enrichment programme at the weekend, but he has so far declined to follow up with the third. The president of the United States is famously averse to extended overseas entanglements: he likes his military adventures to be short, sharp and, above all, successful. The problem is that ridding Iran of the means to make a nuclear weapon is not a task that can be accomplished with a single blow. In his haste to declare victory and move on, Mr Trump is in danger of letting Iran's malignant ruling regime off the hook, allowing it to regroup, suppress any nascent uprising and begin the task of reconstituting its battered nuclear enterprise. As the dust settles over Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, the question is: by demanding that both Iran and Israel cease hostilities, has Mr Trump granted the mullahs a lifeline, an undeserved reprieve? Shortly after unleashing B-2 stealth bombers armed with bunker-busting bombs, Mr Trump jumped on to his Truth Social site to declare the attack 'very successful', adding 'NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!' This blaring instruction to Iran and Israel to end 12 days of war was followed by an unusually foul-mouthed outburst from the president when for a moment they seemed to be defying his call for a ceasefire. While the Israelis had cause to be grateful for American support — their air force lacked the capability to attack such deeply-buried sites — the moral equivalence this intervention suggested was less welcome. Israel, though armed with some 200 nuclear weapons, has never called for the complete destruction of Iran, or any other country for that matter. The regime in Tehran, on the other hand, has since its creation in 1979 consistently sought the liquidation of 'the Zionist entity'. By inserting himself into a war that began with Israeli airstrikes on Iran prompted by alarm that that country was on the verge of making a dash for an atom bomb, Mr Trump has been able to dictate its sudden end — one, though, that may prove to be premature. • Does Iran have nuclear weapons — and did US strikes destroy them? The regime in Tehran may be wounded but it is still dangerous. The White House has stamped on a leaked intelligence report suggesting that the B-2 operation set back Iran's nuclear programme only by a few months. Learning from Israel's surprise attack on Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981, and aware of the potential for a sudden strike, Iran has presumably taken steps to secretly disperse its nuclear estate, be it enriched uranium, gas centrifuge cascades or scientists and technicians. Having narrowly avoided destruction, the Iranian regime has three options: renounce its nuclear ambitions and throw open its doors to international inspection, make a clandestine dash for a bomb to equip itself with deterrent against renewed attack, or wait it out, hiding its surviving nuclear assets in preparation for quietly resuming work when the world has moved on. To prevent these last two outcomes Mr Trump must ensure that Iran submits to a powerful and enduring inspection regime or face penal sanctions and more military action. While the Iranian regime continues to seek Israel's destruction and the means to achieve that end, it cannot possibly be trusted.
