During the three -month investigation, the publication was talked with more than a dozen former defense ministers, senior representatives of the Armed Forces and military experts. Journalists argue that the aggressor country of Russia began to spy on British communications even before the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Underwater unmanned vehicles, which were located next to critically important cables, were first discovered back in 2020. There was neither a floating base or a submarine nearby, which suggests that they had to go a long way to get to the cables.
Several devices were found after they were thrown ashore, while others were expected by the Royal Fleet. It is assumed that they were established by Moscow in order to collect intelligence information about four British Vanguard submarines equipped with nuclear missiles. One of these submarines is always at sea.
A senior British military said that war was already “raging in the Atlantic.” According to him, the military observe the phenomenal activity of Russia. Three high -ranking sources in the defense revealed that before a full -scale invasion of Ukraine there were reliable intelligence that super -cases belonging to billionaires could be used for underwater intelligence around the UK.
The publication resembles the case when the UK recorded the suspicious activity of the Russian vessel “Amber”, which belongs to the lead control of deep -sea research, which oversees the Russian submarine research program. The ship in the West is suspected of espionage, and its activity off the coast of Great Britain may indicate the active training of the Russian Federation for a full -scale war against Western countries, the media wrote.
The Telegraph also writes that over the past 15 months, at least 11 Internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged.
It is noted that Russia is the only country with a fleet of specialized submarines for waging a war on the seabed and espionage. Some of them are superior to the capabilities of Great Britain and its NATO allies, the publication says.
Context
In 2023, the media reported the alarms of European countries in connection with possible preparation of the Russian Federation for sabotage. According to scouts and experts, the Russian military compose a map of wind power plants, gas pipelines, communication cables in the waters around Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. According to the sources, the goal is to plan a sabotage against the countries of Northern Europe, including cutting the cables of power and data transfer through the Atlantic and to the rest of Europe.
The head of the Dutch military intelligence, General Jan Svillens, said that Russia has an extensive program, probably aimed at sabotage of sea wind power plants, gas pipelines and power cables in European waters, the publication reported NL Times.
In April 2024, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands signed joint protection agreement Underwater infrastructure of the North Sea.
On June 30, The Times wrote that NATO suspects Russia of mining of critical infrastructure In the North Sea.
