Russia poses a significant and persistent threat to the UK and to Atlantic security, Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons.

Answering questions on the level of threat posed by Russia, Healey said Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine was now in its fifth year and that Russia was conducting hostile activity against the UK and other NATO allies on an almost daily basis. “Russia conducts hostile cyber-activity, spreads disinformation and carries out sabotage against the UK and many other NATO allies almost daily,” he said, adding that European security started in Ukraine. In response to recent Russian attacks, he said he had directed that UK deliveries of air defence systems to Ukraine be accelerated, and that he would chair the next meeting of the 50-nation Ukraine Defence Contact Group at NATO headquarters this month to step up the military aid provided to Kyiv.

Pressed by the Labour MP for Glasgow South, Gordon McKee, on whether the government would do more to communicate the scale of Russian hybrid warfare to the public, Healey said the threat needed to be better understood by both Parliament and the public. “The Russian threat against the UK is real and rising, and it is important for the public and Parliament to understand that,” he said. He pointed to disclosures he had made over the past year as part of that effort, including revealing that the Russian spy ship Yantar had been monitoring British critical undersea infrastructure and exposing what he described as a month-long covert Russian submarine programme in and near UK waters.

Healey closed his answer with a direct message to the Russian president. “I say to Putin: we see you; we will expose you; and we will not stand for you targeting the UK,” he told MPs.

The exchange was prompted in part by a warning the previous week from the director of GCHQ, who used an annual lecture to describe the UK as being relentlessly targeted by Russian aggression. McKee said it was well established among security experts that Russia was waging hybrid warfare but that this was not well understood by the public, a gap he argued mattered because deterring such attacks required significant investment and, at some point, trade-offs.

The Labour MP for Altrincham and Sale West, Connor Rand, pressed the case for closer cooperation with the European Union, arguing that British leadership on Ukraine had placed the UK in the firing line of an increasingly desperate Putin. Healey said the government was right to seek a closer relationship with the bloc from within what he called a “NATO first” framework, citing the security and defence partnership signed with the EU last year. He added that the Prime Minister had said the UK was looking to join the European Union’s Ukraine loan scheme, allowing it to provide more aid to Kyiv backed by British industry.

Hybrid warfare is the use of methods below the threshold of open armed conflict, among them cyber attacks, sabotage, disinformation and interference with infrastructure, intended to weaken an adversary while remaining hard to attribute and to deter. The Yantar, an oceanographic vessel widely assessed to be used for intelligence-gathering, has been tracked near undersea cables and pipelines in waters around the UK and northern Europe, part of the heightened concern across NATO over the vulnerability of seabed infrastructure that carries power, data and gas.

George Allison
George Allison
George Allison is the founder and editor of the UK Defence Journal. He holds a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in naval and cyber security topics. George has appeared on national radio and television to provide commentary on defence and security issues. Twitter: @geoallison
X

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

56 COMMENTS

  1. Talks a lot this guy, love statements and being seen on tv but bugger all else, like sell of or scrap warships quitly as well. Time put up or shut up. Yes he has talk up threats so justify more defence spending etc but lets see that new money and the year late DIP. That will reveal if its all hot air or not. Been so much talk on defence and some tiny green shoots held back by no real money other than on paper.

    • Crack the whip on the Clyde and get the ships built in service. It’s becoming an embarrassment. and had trashed the ambition of a bigger navy

      • I’ve gained $17,240 only within four weeks by comfortably working part-time from home. Immediately when I had lost my last business, I was very troubled and thankfully I’ve located this project now in this way I’m in a position to receive thousand USD directly from home. Each individual certainly can do this easy work & make more greenbacks online by visiting
        following website—.,.,.,.,.—>>> J­o­b­a­t­Ho­m­e­1.C­o­m

    • The aUk could walk a 100 percent but it would take years to make any difference Britain wants to enlarge the size of the royal navy, but doesn’t have the industrial capacity to do it. The place of warship production is GLACIAL and makes British industry look what it is. Underfunded, lacking in direction, a poorly motivated workforce and adequate management.

      • We lack industrial any thing because we have the highest power costs in the world, too many green industry levees and taxes,and our Unions are to blame for the rest of the problems they killed most of it off by being difficult or bloody mined.
        Every thing here takes ages to build, it never in budget or on time. Fix those issues, its not all governments fault.

        • poorly run industies left o witer on the vine steelmaking coal, shipbuilding britain lost them all because nobody realised how vital they all were

      • We’re starting from a Standing Start.!..
        Were Neither the Facilities Nor the Workforce Exists to Produce the Vessels Required …
        Only Recentlly has that Capacity been Restored to a Certain Measure and the Lag time between Vessels leaving Service and New Vessels Entering Service has hit us Hard…!
        A Time to Reflect on the Stupidity of Politicians…Dare say it’ll happen Again..@
        Our Modern Politicians aren’t if truth be Know any good at Running our Economy….!
        You Wouldn’t Give One of them a job in a corner Shop…! And yet they handle Billions of our Pounds £B £B £B….!

  2. Control the air control the battlespace. Just 100 Typhoons won’t do that given our global commitments. DIP needs to include a sizeable order for more.

  4. Surprised he didn’t talk more about Russia’s increasingly successful attempt to infiltrate and undermine democratic politics in the UK. We all know which party leader admires Putin and has previously blamed the EU and NATO for “provoking Russia” to invade Ukraine.

  6. It shows how weak and feeble successive governments have left us that a country with the second best army in Ukraine, has lost its fleet in the Black Sea and much else besides, is now a serious threat to this country. As much as I would love to, in fairness cannot put the entirety of the blame for this on the massively incompetent Labour government. It seems to be a cherished tradition to leave the country under defended until the last minute.

  7. There are not many. if any dept in government that give so much back in benefits than defence, so the decision to defund it over the last 40 yrs whilst deploying globally has been strange.

    Every penny spent gives a viable return in both hard and soft benefits

    1. Most defence is based in poorer parts of the country and critical to that regions success
    2. No other Gov Dept delivers more R&D than defence
    3. It provides opportunities for some of the poorest people to make a go of their lives (an alternative to crime and benefits) – eventually creating citizens
    4. It defends us from potential enemies
    5. It provides much needed jobs in the industrial and service industries, many are high skilled, high paid.
    6. Those jobs pay tax as do the UK based companies they work for

    there is an excellent return on expenditure for defence – so invest and reap the benefit

  8. Mr Healey, if I don’t replace the lock on my front door and tell everyone about it, what do you think is going to happen as soon as my back is turned!

  9. OT, Navy Lookout Twitter is showing a photo of HMS Montrose being towed away prior to scrapping in Turkey.
    Just looks like the 32 CAMM silo is still intact. Why not recycle the whole CAMM silo farm? It’s ready made! What a waste! Maybe could have gone in the front of the T45s Aster silos or B position on the T31s? Or to stir the pot a bit, on some of the carrier sponson spots?

    • As has been explained many times on here before ,the VLS on T23’s is the Original Sea Wolf Structure,it has absolutely nothing in common with the current 6 Cell CAAM Silo’s.

  10. All very well but apparently all they talk about in cabinet meetings is how to raise more tax to give on benefits according to Pat McFadden! So anything else is way down on their priority list😡

  11. “Russian threat to UK ‘real and rising’, Healey tells MPs” Great shame that action and above all spending are not rising to create the necessary overmatch.

  12. When a proxy of Russia or Iran attacks UK infrastructure directly? Blame these idiots. Welfare is more important to Liebour, like inclusion and other far left “progressive” politics.
    Our infrastructure, physical, is wide open to a variety of threats. Look for the enemy within.

    • They are now too busy trying to dave their necks over Henry Nowak, the actions of the Police has just fuelled the two tier two rules belief of millions, courtesy of decades of Labour and Conservative rule. Starmer shoukd know all about that with his involvement in supressing the Grooming gangs business.
      A volcano is rumbling in this nation of ours, sadly.

  13. The UK is a basket case. Virtually bankrupt and a joke. Two empty great aircraft carriers and half a dozen destroyers and frigates and one operational submarine. Time it stopped pretending to be something it isn’t. It’s a third rate European country.

    • Beijing or Moscow?
      Such a joke that you see the need to put it down?
      So not such a joke then, otherwise why bother?

    • Ironically FRANCE is in Worse State…Hard to Belive..! We’ve Managed to Produce a Political Class in Europe (inc Britain) Bereft of the Ability to Run Countries…!

  14. And thousands of ex military are suing the UK Defence Department for all manner of illnesses, tinnitus and so on in an action that is costing millions of pounds in taxpayers contributions. Best thing for the UK to do is to declare neutrality and to stop pretending it matters on the world stage.

    • “Uk Defence Department”
      🤔
      Why would it be for the best? Every country should try to be the best it can be, I’m sure yours does, whoever you are?

    • PM lost Control in so many ways Early on in his Premiership including his Parliamentary Party..!
      His Authority is Now Very Limited..!.
      Wheather he can get through Anything other than a Token Increase in DEFENCE is Debatable.!. ESPECIALLY As One Mr Pat McFadden has Rather let the Cat out of the Bag in Saying that Back Benches are only really intrested in Finding Futher Taxes And spending it on Welfare…!

  16. Yes , no sh*t sherlock ,how about investing in expanding the navy now rather than writing off ships and RN capability’s .

  17. Then do something about the threat.
    Implement fully SDSR2025
    Publish a realistic DFIP with some sense of urgency and utmost importance.

  18. China is also a constant threat attacking the UK, but instead of mentioning that we coy-up & kowtow to them begging for deals. A greater threat than Russia IMO.
    We desperately need to build our forces up for our own sake & that of all our allies.

    • China is a bit of an Unknown…
      Demographics : The Population Slide..!
      Something We’ll hear a lot more of in the Future from Large parts of the World..!
      And It’s Economic and Financial Problems have Rather been hidden by its Rapid Military Rise….!
      Just How Desperate Will the Chinese Goverment Become Regarding Taiwan and other Parts of South East Asia..?

  20. Except it’s the west that has threatened Russia by reneging on their assurances NATO wouldn’t be allowed to spread eastwards, see `nsarchive, what Gorbachev heard`

    Labour, and the Tory’s, have been gaslighting the UKs voters

    • That site isn’t even an official archive! Former Warsaw Pavt countries have every right as soveriegn nations to apply to join whoever they wish, yes?
      Or are you suggesting restrictions shoukd have been placed on them?
      And if they had all remained as a buffer between Russia and NATO, I’m sure Russia now wouldn’t have gradually been invading them one by one would it….🙄

      • but it does reference documents from official archives as well, and this isn’t about whether country’s can apply to nato, it’s about whether nato should admit them, and if the west is going to stand by the assurances given to russia the answer is clearly no

        nobody has the right to join a club just because they want to, it’s down to the members to decide that, it ain’t rocket science !

    • It won’t under this crew. Fabian communism is about “gradual” change rather than revolutionary change. And we are dealing with Fabians, Blair included. The unspoken Liebour truth is the breakup of the UK.

      • He’s One of the Few in Goverment Who Appears to Belives this Threat is Real..!.
        PM Talks the Talk but that’s About it…!
        More interested in Increases in the Welfare Budget than the Defence Budget…!
        And With All those Extra Unemployed he’s Managed to Create in Just 2 Short years…!
        True Champagne 🥂 Charlie’s…!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here