BACK OFF, VLAD

Defence Sec’s fury at president, Moscow threat is ‘real and rising’

- DAVE BURKE and LIZZY BUCHAN

THREATS to the UK are real and rising, the Defence Secretary warned after lasers were aimed at RAF pilots from a Russian spy ship.

Vladimir Putin was rapped yesterday as Kremlin spy ship, the Yantar, was spotted on the edge of UK waters.

John Healey also claimed crew members of the Yantar “dangerously” directed lasers at RAF pilots ~ and the military were ready to step in.

He said: “We see you, we know what youre doing, If the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready”

He also warned of a rising threat from Russia, which accused him of “hysteria’.

Healey said Russia president Putin is ramping up his aggression and urged the public to recognise a “new era of threat”.

And he dramatically revealed yesterday that the Navy and Air Force had been deployed against the Yantar. He confirmed lasers had been directed at British planes, which he branded deeply dangerous, and warned the Russian tyrant: “We see you”

However, the row escalated last night as the Russian embassy in London accused the government of being “Russophobic’ and “whipping up militaristic hysteria’.

Healey warned the military would engage with the Yantar, designed to carry out surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in conflict, if it changed course. It was yesterday on the edge of British waters north of Scotland.