Royal Navy attack helicopter chases Russian ship out of waters close to UK town

A Russian cargo ship anchored less than a mile from vital undersea telecoms cables was chased off by the Royal Navy this week.

The Sinegorsk anchored just two miles from Minehead, worryingly close to undersea cables which connect the UK to the US, Canada, Spain and Portugal.

The ship claimed it was making ‘essential safety repairs’, but a Royal Navy RN Wildcat attack helicopter was dispatched and chased the Sinegorsk back into open waters.

The ship had left a major Russian port earlier this week before anchoring near Minehead on Tuesday until Wednesday afternoon.

The close call has prompted government ministers to speak out about the threats the UK faces from Vladimir Putin.

Shadow security minister Alicia Kearns said: ‘The movements of this Russian ship are deeply suspicious.’

The ship isn’t believed to be part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’, but has caused alarm, being the latest ship to enter UK waters in recent months.

Early this month, a sanctioned Russian shadow tanker sailed through the English Channel under a false name. 

The Arcusat, sanctioned by the US in 2024, was flying a Cameroonian flag and had previously been named ‘Tia’ and ‘Tavian’.

It departed a port near Izmir, Turkey, on December 30, and was thought to be heading towards Russia.

Rachel Ellehuus, director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, previously warned that the UK is just waking up to these ‘state threats’.

At a RUSI event discussing UK foreign policy challenges, she told Metro: ‘Russia’s shadow fleet will come, the disinformation will come, the drones will fly again, the irresponsible air incursions will happen.

‘People just have to become resilient to it. And that means both in terms of their attitude and in terms of having redundancy on our various systems, whether that is lines of communications or shipping lanes.’

Russia has long been accused of interfering in European affairs, even prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Every day, hundreds of shadow fleet ships – unregulated, unsafe tankers carrying oil from Russia to states including China and India – sail through European waters.

To avoid sanctions, the vessels intentionally disable their identification system, tamper with their location and falsify registry documentation.

By early this year, analysts estimated that roughly one sixth of the world’s active tanker fleet belonged to Russian operators employing obscure flags and shell companies. The number of vessels exceeded 900.

European Union regulations are evolving to address Russia’s shadow fleet. By July, the EU had designated 444 shadow fleet vessels. 

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