London:
The UK today scrambled fighter jets today after it noticed a Russian bomber approach its airspace. While the Royal Air Force was tracking the Russian jet, the Royal Navy found two separate groups of Russian Navy ships near its waters in the English Channel.
Russia has upped its military movement in the Pacific, the Atlantic and the seas around Europe – namely the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the North seas. UK’s Royal Navy, which keeps a close watch over the North sea and the English Channel, both off its borders, noticed a large naval fleet on Thursday.
UK scrambled two Royal Air Force Typhoon jets to keep a check on the Russian Bear-F bomber over the near its airspace. The Royal Navy also sent out warships to shadow two groups of Russian Navy vessels – one heading towards the Atlantic Ocean, and the other on course for the Baltic Sea.
UK’s Ministry of Defence has said that this was the second time in three months that Russian military aircraft and naval ships were seen close to its waters and airspace.
“Our adversaries should be in no doubt of our steadfast determination and formidable ability to protect the UK,” Luke Pollard, British minister for the armed forces, said in a statement.
This comes days after the UK announced a wave of new sanctions against Russia’s military industrial complex and Russian-backed mercenary groups. The latest sanctions by the UK, which are 56 in number, is the largest sanctions package against Russia since May 2023.
According to the UK government, the latest sanctions “disrupt the supply of vital equipment for Vladimir Putin’s war machine and exposes the corrupt activities of Russian proxy military groups in Africa.”
UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy had said last week that “Today’s measures will continue to push back on the Kremlin’s corrosive foreign policy.” He went on to say that the latest sanctions will “disrupt the supply of vital equipment for Putin’s war machine. And smashing the illicit international networks that Russia has worked so hard to forge.”
The foreign secretary further said that “Putin is nearly 1,000 days into a war he thought would only take a few. He will fail and I will continue to bear down on the Kremlin and support the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom.”
In September, the UK was the first NATO member state that initiated the process for Ukraine to be allowed to use British cruise missiles deep inside Russian territory. UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer had even flown to Washington DC to meet Joe Biden over Ukraine’s use of its cruise missiles, forcing Moscow to update its nuclear doctrine in a warning to the West that Russia might even use nuclear weapons to defend itself.