In a move critics say is nothing short of deliberate provocation, one of Vladimir Putin’s infamous stealth submarines — the Krasnodar — brazenly cruised past UK waters, dragging its tugboat Altay behind it while British and NATO forces scrambled to keep pace.
The submarine, often labelled a “black hole” for its near-undetectable profile, drifted from the North Sea through the Strait of Dover and straight into the English Channel, turning a routine maritime zone into a geopolitical flashpoint.
The timing has raised eyebrows: the stunt unfolded barely days after the Royal Navy sounded the alarm about intensifying Russian military behaviour at sea. And Russia wasted no time proving them right.
Marchwood-based RFA Tidesurge was forced into a full-throttle monitoring operation, deploying its Merlin helicopter to shadow the Soviet-era sub as it pushed through hostile weather.
Captain James Allen of Tidesurge didn’t mince words: “There is nothing like a Russian submarine to focus the mind for any mariner.”
A thinly veiled admission that Moscow’s showboating still rattles the West.
Lieutenant Commander David Emery of 814 Naval Air Squadron doubled down, warning that constant surveillance of Russian vessels in UK waters isn’t optional — it’s “vital for national security.”
Despite heavy seas, the Krasnodar stayed on the surface until it reached France’s Ushant Island, where British forces reluctantly handed the operation to a NATO partner, ending a passage many say was designed to test UK resolve.
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