VLADIMIR Putin’s spy ship armed with state-of-the-art stealth subs has been spotted lurking over UK internet cables, sparking fears they could be cut.
Russian navy ship the Yantar was caught loitering above major undersea cables off the Irish coastline on Tuesday night.
The vessel was above at least one commercial subsea cable.
The ship spent the early hours of Wednesday morning moving through seas to the north of Mayo and west of Donegal in a zig zag fashion, suggesting it was searching for something beneath the water.
It then moved to the west of Killybegs fishing harbour before scuttling off into the Atlantic.
The ship’s behaviour is being described as highly suspicious and Britain’s Defence Force and NATO are now monitoring it, according to The Times.
The Yantar was operating outside Ireland’s territorial waters but inside the exclusive economic zone.
The Defence Forces said: “This ship is transmitting on the Automatic Identification System and is outside Irish Territorial Waters.
“This activity is in line with the UN convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS) rules for transit through international waters.
“Territorial waters are twelve nautical miles from the coast of Ireland and under UNCLOS, there is no restriction on ships operating on the high seas inside exclusive economic zones.”
The spy ship belongs to Russia’s Directorate of Underwater Research, which is part of the defence ministry – which has been boosting troop numbers.
It was built in Kaliningrad and has a crew of 60 and completed missions across the globe under the guise of conducting oceanic surveys.
It also has two three-man subs called Rus and Konsul, which can dive to about 6,000m.
Ireland is understood to be Europe’s weakest military power and lacks basic sonar capabilities.
One former intelligence officer said: “This type of activity has been going on wholesale for the last few years.
“It highlights the importance of having a properly resourced naval service and air corps to adequately monitor our areas of maritime responsibility.
“We are Europe’s weakest link in defence. We have no sonar capability. We have no military radar so we can’t even monitor our skies. No self-respecting nation would allow this to happen.
“Russia has discerned this weakness for themselves and are now taking full advantage.”
There are growing concerns that the Yantar may be preparing to cut off cables that carry internet between Ireland, Europe and North America.
Declan Power, a security analyst, said Yantar’s presence was a “pretty serious development” for Ireland’s national security.
Keir Giles, a senior Russia expert at Chatham House, said it was indicative of Russia’s interest in Ireland.
“It’s plainly up to something. It’s a relatively new ship. They call it an oceanographic research vessel but the kind of research they undertake is generally not the kind we like.”
In response, Britain has increased maritime surveillance ops and stepped up naval patrols.
Data from MarineTarffic.com shows the Yantar stationed between two undersea internet cables at 4am Tuesday morning and remained there for the most of Wednesday.
Hours before stopping, it altered course to run parallel to the expected route of the Celtic Norse undersea cable and the AEConnect-1, which runs between Ireland and the US, according to navalnews.com.
According to analysis of open sources (OSINT), Yantar left Olenya Guba naval base in the Russian arctic on August 8.
It turned off its automatic tracking system shortly after leaving, which Navy vessels are permitted to do.
Olenya Guba is home to a number of Putin’s spy assets, including the Losharik submarine that caught on fire on July 1, 2019.
This comes as Putin‘s shadowy fleet of submarines continue a campaign of tampering with the West’s vital undersea internet cables.
The vessels are operated by a shadowy branch of the Russian military that answers directly to Putin.
The subs are carried beneath an enormous “mothership” undersea vessel and are built to lurk at the bottom of the ocean – entering the Atlantic by sailing down from the Arctic.
They then use robotic arms to tamper with or even cut key cables that help keep the world’s economy moving with potentially devastating consequences.
It comes as Putin has opened up a new front in the North Pole as he builds new military bases in the frozen wastes – giving him control of polar waters across 11 of the world’s time zones.
Tensions continue to simmer between the West and Russia who have both beefed up their presence in the polar region, which is believed to hold significant natural resources.
And cutting the undersea cables could be a key element in any conflict between the two sides.
Undersea cables crisscrossing the seafloor carry 97 per cent of internet traffic with $10 trillion worth of daily financial transactions dependent on them.
Cutting enough of the network in the Atlantic could cause chaos for Britain, with Air Marshall Sir Stuart Peach previously warning such a breach could be “catastrophic”.
It could shut down the internet, cut Britain off from the rest of the world, paralyse financial transactions, and damage communications with the military overseas.
