Russia is currently Britain’s ‘number one adversary threat’, the Defence Secretary has warned.
Ben Wallace said Vladimir Putin’s submarines are constantly circling the UK’s coastline while Moscow has been carrying out ‘a number of operations deliberately aimed at Britain’.
At least nine Russian vessels were spotted off the UK late last year, he added.
He told the Telegraph: ‘We’re regularly visited by nosy Russian ships, and we are regularly visited now by a number of Russian warships.
‘We have tried de-escalation, we have tried methods but at the moment until Russia changes its attitude, it’s quite hard to see where we’re going to go. This is a country that killed someone in Salisbury.’
At least 150 Russian ships or submarines have been picked up by UK radar since 2013.
A kilo class sub was seen in the Irish Sea at the end of 2020, something the UK has not seen ‘for a very, very long time’, according to Mr Wallace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been branded the UK’s ‘number one
adversary threat’ by the Defence Secretary
Mr Wallace made the comments in Portsmouth, where the HMS Queen Elizabeth was setting off on her 26,000-mile maiden voyage to the Far East, where it will visit 40 countries before arriving in Japan.
According to Mr Wallace, the carrier will act as a ‘convener and projection’ of Britain’s ‘soft power’.
He said: ‘It is where hard and soft power meet, where the rubber hits the road. So, going to the Pacific shows that we can operate 8,000 miles away.
‘It shows that our friends like Japan – with common values, democracy, open economies – that we have that common link and that we can operate together, because the biggest strength is people who share our values. We have alliances and we have friends.’
Ben Wallace said submarines from Moscow are constantly circling British shores
It comes after General Sir Patrick Sanders said this week that Britain had taken its ‘eye off the ball’ with Russia and had ‘let its guard down’ following the Cold War.
The head of Britain’s Strategic Command said cyber attacks and espionage aimed at the UK and its allies were also soaring.
Putin warned its adversaries on Thursday that Russia would ‘knock their teeth out’ if they attempted to stop its development or ‘bite something off us’.
During a call with Kremlin officials, he said: ‘In all times, the same thing happened: once Russia grew stronger, they found pretexts to hamper its development.
‘Everyone wants to bite us or bite something off us, but those who would like to do so should know that we would knock their teeth out so that they couldn’t bite.’