Britain takes stand against Putin over spy ship lasers

Defence secretary condemns 'deeply dangerous' action

- MILLIE COOKE, KATE DEVLIN, CAITLIN DOHERTY

The defence secretary has issued a stark warning to Vladimir Putin after a Russian spy ship operating on the edge of UK waters directed lasers at RAF pilots.

John Healey said the Yantar was operating north of Scotland and had pointed lasers at pilots of surveillance aircraft monitoring its activities in a "deeply dangerous" move.

In a defiant stand against the action, he told a Westminster press conference yesterday: "My message to Russia and to Putin is this: we see you. We know what you're doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready." The Russian embassy in the UK hit back, accusing the government of being "Russophobic" and "whipping up militaristic hysteria". The pilots targeted by the lasers, understood to have happened within the past two weeks, had been monitoring the ship's activities after it breached UK waters for the second time this year.

Mr Healey said its presence was "designed to put ... our undersea infrastructure and those of our allies at risk".

He said: "It is part of a Russian fleet. It isn't just a naval operation. It's part of a Russian programme driven by what they call the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, and this is designed to have capabilities which can undertake surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in conflict.“ That was why, he said, whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters "we track it, we deter it and we say to Putin we are ready, and we do that alongside allies".