Royal Navy shadowed 61 Russian warships around UK waters

Royal Navy vessels were activated 116 times during 2025-26 to shadow 61 Russian warships and 28 Russian merchant vessels within the United Kingdom’s Exclusive Economic Zone, amid a 30% increase in Russian naval activity over the previous two years, according to the Ministry of Defence.

The figures appear in the department’s annual report and accounts, which sets out the scale of monitoring conducted under Operation Addison, the standing task covering Russian warships transiting UK waters.

The report states that Defence “regularly and routinely monitors Russian warships transiting within the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), under Operation ADDISON, to maintain situational awareness in UK waters and deter hostile activity.” Royal Navy vessels, it says, “routinely patrol our waters to protect UK interests, contribute to domestic maritime security and act as a deterrent against potential malign activities.”

In November 2025, HMS Somerset and an RAF aircraft tracked the Russian spy ship Yantar near key undersea cables off Scotland. In December, the Royal Navy shadowed the Kilo class submarine Krasnodar and its accompanying tug through the English Channel. In January 2026, the Royal Navy supported United States forces in intercepting and interdicting the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera, formerly the Bella1, with aerial surveillance provided by the RAF.

The Yantar has been a recurring presence in British waters and is operated by Russia’s Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research, known as GUGI, which sits outside the Russian Navy’s conventional command structure. The vessel is equipped to deploy submersibles capable of operating at depth, and its movements near cable routes have prompted repeated statements from ministers about the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure carrying data and energy between the UK and its neighbours.

The interdiction of the Marinera reflects growing attention to the so-called shadow fleet of ageing tankers used to move sanctioned Russian oil, often operating with opaque ownership, irregular insurance and switched identities. The vessel’s former name, Bella1, points to the renaming practice common across that fleet.

The Krasnodar is one of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Improved Kilo class diesel-electric attack submarines, a type armed with Kalibr land attack cruise missiles and used during the war in Ukraine to strike targets from the Black Sea. Transits of the Channel by Russian submarines under tow or on the surface are routinely shadowed by the Royal Navy.

The 116 activations recorded in the reporting year cover the deployment of ships and, in many cases, supporting maritime patrol aircraft, to observe and escort vessels through waters extending up to 200 nautical miles from the coast. The Royal Navy has consistently maintained that such shadowing is conducted in accordance with international law, with the vessels concerned exercising navigational rights in the EEZ.