Royal Navy deployed as Russian ships carrying "sanctioned military hardware" sail through British waters
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Vigilant Royal Navy sailors have been deployed after Russian ships carrying “sanctioned military hardware” were spotted sailing through British waters.
Portsmouth-based patrol vessel HMS Mersey is currently tracking three of Moscow’s ships alongside Nato allies. The River-class offshore patrol vessel left HMNB Portsmouth on the morning of January 3 following the sighting.
Nigel Scutt, who runs the Dover Strait Shipping social media account and regularly tracks Moscow ships, said this did not come as a surprise in the new year and didn’t expect it to be too long “before the next transit of sanctioned Russian military hardware sailed close to our shores, through our area of national interest”.
He took pictures of two of the three Russian ships seen over the past few days, one of which being military. The first is the Udaloy-class destroyer Severomorsk, commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1987. She is currently escorting Russian flagged cargo ships Sparta IV - which was last shadowed by Royal Navy sailors aboard HMS Iron Duke in September - and MYS Zhelaniya.
In his most recent update, Mr Scutt said it was previously trading under “the names Beluga Generation, BBC Orinoco, Gisele Scan, Amanda and Clipper Miami”.
He added that the trio kept in tight company as they sailed near the coast of Essex on Monday morning (January 5), ahead of a projected overnight transit through the Dover strait. They are travelling westwards through the English Channel.
Mr Scutt said the presence of RFN Severomorsk, described as “a relic of the old Soviet Navy”, is an indicator of the cargo being transported. “The two vessels here are consistently linked with the transportation of Russian military cargoes” he told The News.
“Although operated by Russian commercial companies, they are time chartered, in effect, to the Russian government, for that purpose. The fact that they have Severomorsk as an escort, suggests that they are transporting something interesting.”
The Royal Navy confirmed that an ongoing operation is taking place, but declined to give further information at this stage. The last mission which involved monitoring Russian vessels took place in December 2025. A Merlin helicopter and tanker RFA Tidesurge shadowed the Kilo-class submarine Krasnodar, which was accompanying the tug boat Altay.