UK calls out Putin over covert Russian submarine operation — BBC Newscast

[0:00] Today I'm revealing details of a recent military operation undertaken by Russia and to President [0:04] Putin I say we see you, we see your activity over our cables and our pipelines and you should know [0:13] that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences. [0:24] Defence Secretary, hello. Hello. Now I remember last time you were on Newscast you were in the [0:29] back of your ministerial car coming back from Plymouth and you were talking to me and Chris [0:33] about a Russian ship called the Yantar that had been in British territorial waters and here we [0:39] are again. That's true I think it was November and it's much better to join you in the studio so I'm [0:46] glad to do that. Yeah so you did this surprise news conference in Downing Street on Thursday morning [0:52] where you were talking about what the Russians had been doing in British waters and what Britain had [0:57] done in response so let's do the first bit first what was actually going on what was Vladimir Putin [1:02] trying to do? Well you mentioned the spy ship Yantar which I exposed before this is part of the same [1:09] secret operation that President Putin wants to operate covertly in and around our waters and those [1:17] of our allies. It's part of a what they call a Gugi team it's a deep ocean research capability and [1:26] it's designed to be able to survey pipelines and cables in peacetime but then sabotage them in conflict. [1:36] And we should be clear these are cables that carry information around the world that the UK sends out [1:43] there this is our gas pipelines from other countries. These are the these are the the networks on which our [1:49] way of life depends you know half of our gas comes through pipelines under the sea. Trillions of pounds [1:58] each day is part of the trade 99% of our telecoms and our data comes through cables under the sea [2:06] connected to the UK so if an adversary like Putin holds those at risk then they threaten the way that [2:15] we live they threaten the lifeblood of our economy as well as our security and so what I've done today [2:21] is to set out a very substantial UK armed forces operation alongside Norway and other allies over [2:30] more than a month which has demonstrated that we alert Putin's threat despite the Middle East commanding a [2:39] lot of people's attention we haven't taken our eye off the primary threat to the UK which is Russian [2:44] aggression and rising and now it's our last time it was the spy ship on the surface this time it was [2:53] a combination of three submarines and we tracked them 24 7 for over a month with allies to make sure [3:01] that we are able to say to Putin we see what you're doing we're watching you and it means also that if there [3:10] is ever any damage to our cables or our pipelines we know we can hold put into account we know he can't [3:18] deny it and it also demonstrates to people I think that despite full focus on the Middle East you know [3:25] armed forces 24 7 are also doing the job of protecting our homeland yeah and dealing with the threats that [3:31] Putin poses to the wider NATO flank so so my reading of your statement this morning was that there was [3:36] one submarine sent near Britain and that was sort of a decoy that was meant to distract you while these [3:42] other two submarines looked at our cables to kind of scope them out is that right well I think first [3:47] you know Putin would have wanted us to be distracted by the Middle East and whilst we're defending our [3:53] people we're defending our allies in the Middle East we're not being distracted from what he gets [3:59] up to and yes we we've we've we first saw a an attack submarine and a cooler class submarine part [4:06] of the Russian Navy that was likely to be a decoy but we picked up the other two secret submarines part [4:14] of the Gugi operation and we tracked both the attack submarine for as long as it was in and around our [4:22] waters and those of our allies until it retreated headed back to port north into the Russian high north and [4:28] then we continued to track the two Gugi submarines so that we were able to watch them every step of [4:35] the way and make clear to them they were being monitored they were being watched and the covert [4:42] operation that Putin plans had been exposed but they still felt that they could hang around in our [4:47] waters for a whole month well they did but then because surely if they were if they were have threatened [4:56] by us or impressed by our show of force they would have done a U-turn much quicker well their purpose [5:03] remember was a secret operation that we exposed it was a covert operation that we watched 24 7 [5:09] and a very substantial operation that demonstrated the if you like the capabilities of our own armed [5:16] forces to Putin as well as I hope to reassure our public so you know we had more than 500 personnel [5:22] involved in this and that was just the UK effort alone we had 450 hours flown by our special submarine [5:31] hunting aircraft our submarine hunting frigate sailed several thousand nautical miles they did it in the [5:39] most treacherous extreme high north conditions so it demonstrates if you like to Putin we've got the [5:47] capability to detect what he does we got the capability to deter and expose what he does and [5:54] if necessary we will have the capability also to respond if indeed there's any damage to our pipelines [6:01] or our cables and that there's no evidence of that as a result of this no evidence of any damage but we [6:08] with allies will make sure that is verified and our UK undersea network is one of the most resilient [6:15] things around we have a very rapid repair rate in conjunction with the sort of commercial operators [6:22] we've got pre-planned rerouting if there is any damage to any cables or pipelines but despite having [6:30] a really if you like resilient infrastructure in the UK the threats are increasing and this is a [6:36] demonstration that we're on it we're tracking those Russian threats we've got the capability to [6:43] uh detect them to track them and if necessary we've got the capability also to respond to them and we [6:49] will would you expect a Russian response to what you've done today well we'll see um i called out [6:55] their spy ship yantar back in november um i think i think i got a bit of abuse from the kremlin uh in some [7:04] of the some of the statements from spokespeople but uh we'll we'll see the important thing for me [7:09] is that putin planned a covert operation we've exposed it uh and he cannot now deny uh the threat [7:19] that he poses to our undersea infrastructure why are you going public about this because i assume [7:25] the russians knew what you were doing uh so so the kremlin will have got the message why are you laying [7:31] it on this thick with the public as well because i want the public to recognize that despite the [7:36] all eyes on the middle east understandably um and this noisy dangerous conflict that we've got out [7:42] there there are other threats that our nation faces and that our form our forces are alert to [7:49] those tracking those and dealing with those 24 7 and it's also we're reminding people that [7:55] um we're rightly concerned about the middle east we want to see a ceasefire there we want to see the [8:00] stability returned and the the lifeblood of shipping restored through the strait of humus [8:06] um but the primary threat to the uk remains rising russian aggression that's a threat to us it's a threat [8:14] to our nato allies and it's why nato is developing its deterrence its defense um and it's now bigger stronger [8:23] and better funded than it was uh before putin invaded ukraine that raises about a million more [8:31] questions so i'll try and cram in as many as i can in the time that we've got you um you you talk [8:36] about the situation in the gulf did this operation oh did this operation have a name by the way or is [8:41] that top secret no we've just uh we've just it's just we've just we've just we've just done it yeah [8:47] okay it doesn't have a name that classic journalist we're always looking for the for the label um doing [8:52] this did that prevent us doing things that as a country you would have liked to do in the gulf and [8:57] in the middle east in the last month no because we've got forces that are capable of doing more [9:02] than one thing at once um i'm proud of what we've done in the middle east it was weeks before this [9:07] current conflict broke out that i put extra planes radar systems air defense systems uh and personnel [9:14] into the middle east so that we could defend british bases british people and british allies we [9:20] stepped that up when we've seen the if you like the scale and the indiscriminate nature of the [9:25] iranian response um and we've now got a thousand uk personnel across the middle east and beyond cyprus [9:33] playing a part in defending our interests and our allies there so there wasn't an opportunity cost [9:39] from working in british waters for for what you would have done in the middle east no at one and the [9:43] same time this operation that i've exposed today ran for over a month um almost simultaneously with [9:51] the current conflict in the middle east and i hope it's a reassurance to the british public that we've [9:57] got an armed forces that are on it that are capable of mounting what was a very substantial operation [10:02] with allies uh and in particular you know a big tribute to norway um we work particularly closely [10:08] with norway um and the defense minister there the government minister there and the government [10:15] share our dedication to um deal and confront with the threat that putin poses to the to the north [10:23] atlantic and i remember when i was last in norway um and i've been there two or three times now [10:28] right before christmas uh the norwegian defense minister hosted us i coordinated the meeting of 10 [10:35] um what we call jeff allies nordic and baltic countries and we wargamed half a mile inside a [10:41] norwegian mountain exactly this sort of what in a bunker exactly that sort of mountain bunker it's the [10:47] one of the operational headquarters of the of the norwegians but we wargamed together the 10 defense [10:53] ministers um the responses that we needed to make to this type of uh russian hybrid activity and were [11:02] you doing various scenarios in that war game like was there an incredibly serious one i mean it's [11:07] all serious but i mean a really really dramatic one it's all serious it can all have serious [11:11] consequences um and the point about this is to recognize that russia poses this rising threat [11:18] uh that its level of activities are increasing so over the last two years we've seen by nearly a [11:24] third the increase in the number of russian vessels encroaching on our wider waters it's the same for [11:30] other nato allies uh which suggests that your deterrence up until now has not been working [11:35] because the russians keep sending more ships which means they're not scared we're still going to [11:40] stop uh but the point is that we it's increasing we we track it well the russian the russian [11:47] aggression is increasing and not just the threat it poses to our undersea infrastructure the number [11:53] of incursions of russian planes into nato airspace the cyber attacks that we and other nations [11:59] are facing including from russia is clearly on the increase and it is why that we're working more [12:06] closely with allies it's why you had keir starmer that um about a month ago in a big speech at the [12:11] munich security conference said look hard power is the currency of the age it's why as a government [12:16] we're putting now record increases of investment into defense um because that's required to deal with [12:24] the increasing demands on defense and the increasing threats that we face how do you describe what [12:31] situation we're in with russia now because some people say oh this is looking a little bit like [12:36] we're kind of in a weird war with russia now how would you describe what it is i would say first of [12:42] all that um putin has the capability to certainly wage hybrid warfare on us it's gugi operation is [12:51] designed to do that as i say to be able to map um and uh survey uh our undersea infrastructure now [13:00] in peace time but also sabotage it damage it destroy it uh in conflict and that's a one reminder [13:09] of the threat that putin poses but the important thing for me as defense secretary and it's why i work [13:15] so hard on the close alliances with nations like norway and with the us uh and within nato is that [13:23] we don't defend alone we don't deter alone and if we're forced to fight we won't fight alone and [13:28] that's the great strength of the the nato ally uh alliance um was the us involved in this operation [13:35] well i'm not disclosing the details of other allies um the norwegians norway the norwegians have [13:42] confirmed oh so they're part of the operation yeah uh they like us had their p8 uh submarine [13:48] submarine hunting aircraft involved they had one of their submarine hunting frigates involved [13:53] uh you know and the the the the historical loon house agreement that i've signed now the uk with [14:01] norway which includes that um biggest ever warship export deal from britain means that we're two nations [14:08] now that will increasingly put together a combined uh anti-submarine uh force uh of frigates uh of [14:18] aircraft of autonomous systems that will do what we've done as two nations together for decades but [14:25] reinforce our ability to defend nato northern flank sounds like a special relationship but with norway [14:31] this time i i i regard it as special um i regard the degree of cooperation the degree of understanding [14:39] the shared determination we have to recognize that the high north is uh a priority area it's an area of uh [14:49] greatest threat from russia and that with putin increasing his russian levels of activity and potential threat to us and our allies like norway [14:59] we meet that best by not just rebuilding the strength of our forces as we are with the record investment [15:07] but we do so by strengthening our alliances and so you've seen i think from [15:12] keir starmer and this government uh over 20 months uh rebuilding uh setting out to rebuild our hard power [15:20] so last year we put 300 million more into shipbuilding in this country we've doubled to 4 billion pounds the [15:27] amount we're putting into autonomy um you see hard power you see the development of strong alliances [15:35] and the exercise of sure diplomacy and it's that combination that helps make britain more secure [15:41] uh at home um but also stronger abroad uh you say you want to strengthen alliances is donald trump [15:47] weakening them well so i don't i i make a point not of commenting on his social media [15:56] um post what even when he threatens to end an entire civilization well he he that was uh that was uh [16:04] that was clearly something that as a government we took issue with i think the point for me is [16:11] when i talk with his secretary of war pete hexeth when i sit next to him uh at nato defense ministers [16:19] he's very clear as president trump has been with our prime minister [16:23] that the us remain totally committed to nato and to article 5 but they require rightly in my view but [16:33] they require and are pushing as hard as european nations to do more within nato so take on more of [16:40] the leadership with ukraine which we are as the uk uh and to do more to invest in defense which we are [16:47] and we will do more as the uk um but also to do more of the if you like the heavy lifting within nato [16:54] to defend the north atlantic and the wider european area and i think this operation [16:59] is a very good example of exactly that um so you want you don't want to talk about donald trump's [17:06] social media posts i can understand that but we could talk about something that the us administration [17:10] is doing they have sent the vice president jd vance to hungary uh to re to support victor [17:16] orban's re-election campaign victor orban is okay maybe not necessarily an ally of russia but he's [17:21] quite pro russia not that enthusiastic about helping out ukraine is it okay for the vice president of [17:30] our strongest ally to go and do that this week of all weeks well i mean that's for them to explain [17:35] surely um you can have a view not not for me to explain or or get into we'll see what the election [17:41] result is in hungary uh hungary does remain a an important nato member um and my focus as defense [17:49] minister uh for the uk is to make sure that we play our leading part as other nations want us to do [17:56] in building up the european strength of nato responding to the challenge from the us to do more [18:03] um and uh you know i think we've demonstrated that by exposing the not just the uh nature of [18:13] putin's covert operation but by setting out the detail of how substantial our armed forces with [18:19] allies okay has been in order to deal with those threats um is there a world where in the very near [18:24] future british military personnel are helping to keep the strait of hormuz open and i mean but keeping [18:30] it open by by being there doing stuff first and foremost we need a uh the ceasefire to hold [18:39] uh we want it sort of strengthened so it becomes a long-term peace and that in the end will be [18:46] the best circumstances in which the opening of the strait of hormuz takes place because fundamentally [18:52] it's about the confidence of commercial ship owners crews insurers that their ships can have [19:00] safe packets of passage what i think is a useful contribution to building a um an international [19:09] multinational understanding about the circumstances necessary and the potential options for helping [19:15] make that happen a useful contribution and there's a sort of conference that our foreign secretary [19:21] convened last week with around 40 nations that our military headquarters convened this week [19:27] and also the the sort of discussions the prime minister is having at the moment with gulf countries [19:33] in the middle east talking about the importance of the strait of hormuz being open to shipping uh without [19:40] tolls um and the importance of uh this fledgling ceasefire which we hope will be reinforced by the vice [19:50] president's discussions and negotiations over the weekend because to me that all sounds like like britain is [19:55] putting a lot of effort into the diplomacy and actually you're not really thinking about a military [20:00] component of that we've been discussing and looking at the development of military options with other [20:08] nations but fundamentally this needs to be diplomatically led fundamentally it needs to be in the [20:14] context of a ceasefire that holds um and that it's in the context also of a stability that's restored to [20:24] the wider region and is your understanding of the ceasefire that was agreed between the iranians and [20:29] the us that lebanon was included in that and israeli attacks on hezbollah were include were meant to be [20:36] incorporated into the ceasefire uh the best thing i can go on is the public statements but i would say to [20:42] you uh what you don't have more to go on than than what has been said in public if if if we want stability [20:48] if we want um a settled middle east then lebanon has to be included in the ceasefire we want to see [20:56] it included in the ceasefire we condemn the escalation of the the conflict in lebanon uh at the moment and [21:05] we will look to the further negotiations which are set to take place over this weekend and i'd want to [21:13] see that ceasefire extended to include israel and lebanon um people might be a little bit concerned [21:20] that that you have to go off the public statements of of of the us and iran and that you don't have [21:25] sort of your own intel or your own information from the americans about what's going on are you just [21:30] being sort of reticent to like spill the beans or is it that that that we don't know well we're having [21:35] a public discussion right which is why i'm referring to the public statements oh so if we were in the pub [21:40] privately maybe you'd say a bit more in the pub privately oh well you'll have to try you'll have [21:46] to try me in the you'll have to try me in the pub so i'm recording this at half past one so it's far [21:50] too early um okay that's okay i see your point um just on the uk contribution to security in the gulf [21:58] can we talk about hms dragon um are you happy with how the whole hms dragon dragon thing played out [22:06] i'm just thinking about the fact that the prime minister announced it was going and then it was quite [22:11] a long time before it actually left ports then it took ages to get there that's geography you can't [22:16] do anything about that and now it looks like it's already being recalled back to port for repairs [22:20] i mean are you happy with that as kind of the storyline around hms dragon in the last month [22:26] well first of all i'm really proud of what our forces are doing of course in the middle east yeah [22:31] they're in harm's way yeah of course dragon is a part of that um but remember weeks before this [22:37] current conflict erupted uh i put in extra jets radar systems air defense systems electronic war [22:45] systems into the middle east to reinforce our defenses so we have from day one been able to [22:52] fly defensive missions to protect british people our bases and our allies out there and as we've seen [22:58] then the um nature and extent of the widespread retaliation from uh iran then we've stepped up and [23:07] altered what we've done and dragon was a part of that and if you look at the if you look at the speed [23:14] in which um the navy and the civilians did six weeks work in six days to get dragon um out of port [23:25] and if you look at the way that destroyers like dragon generally have to go in regularly for routine [23:33] maintenance which is what's happening now they'll go in for the regular maintenance they'll upgrade [23:39] their systems that's happening now and they'll fix minor faults and that's happening now and it's just [23:44] a fact of life it's it's a it's a fact of fact of life you can't run aircraft submarines military [23:50] aircraft you can't run military personnel 24 7 indefinitely and that's just part of the way that [23:57] you have to sort of suppose if you have if you have more of all those things then you've got more [24:00] resilience but as you said you are investing yeah look no but nobody can deny you know we've we've had [24:04] 14 years in which our forces including the navy have been hollowed out and underfunded uh we don't [24:10] turn that around overnight you know the fact that the under the last 14 years the number of warships [24:17] were cut the number of mine hunters were cut the uh renewal of our nuclear deterrent was delayed [24:24] um but we are putting more into british shipbuilding now 300 million more last year we're now doubling [24:30] the amount of investment we're putting in to autonomy to four billion pounds so we are turning [24:37] that down we are rebuilding it but when it takes six years to build a warship you can see that that [24:42] won't happen overnight you can't click your fingers uh just two very quick questions because [24:46] you've got to go back to your day job um are we sending one of our aircraft carriers to the us to [24:51] mark the fourth of july as has been speculated well what the what the prime minister's said i've said [24:58] as well is that we will deploy our our military where the threats are greatest and at the moment our [25:04] priority is in the high north this operation i expose today has demonstrated that and we've announced [25:11] announced and he announced back actually in his munich security conference speech that we would be [25:16] sending the prince of wales uk carrier as nato's flagship leading a nato high north deployment we'd be [25:25] sending it to the high north and to help patrol that northern reaches of the atlantic and it's also why [25:31] we're playing the lead role now also in nato's new mission arctic century we're recognizing the threats in the [25:37] high north recognizing the role and responsibility of the uk can play in leading the sort of operations [25:43] to protect our northern flank and last question totally different note totally different tone [25:48] there's a a big profile of you in the new statesman a couple of weeks ago and i very much enjoyed reading [25:52] it while i was on holiday the most startling fact in that was that you carry a bottle of hp sauce with [25:58] you everywhere is that true is that the most startling about well i mean there was lots of other [26:03] interesting things in there but well look uh it is true i've always done it um uh i guess you know [26:13] as the politicians answer would be i'm an mp so i carry hp sauce but actually the hard truth of is [26:17] i love hp sauce yeah and these days you too often get a brown sauce substitute yeah you want you got [26:23] to take you want the real deal you got to take your own i'm just wondering how do you get around the [26:26] hundred mil liquids thing in airports because you have your own plane don't you no well not always no but [26:33] uh i you know i have had it confiscated by whom by by by airport security okay um in which case [26:43] let's get another one yes anyway that is a very different uh from the from the rest of the subjects [26:48] that we're discussing today um yeah thank you very much and come back next time you want to update us [26:52] about about the safety of the world thank you so that was my conversation with john healy the defense [26:57] secretary here are my three main takeaways number one vladimir putin and the kremlin know all of this [27:03] already so him going public today is aimed at you it's so that you know about it number two did you [27:11] notice that whenever he talks about the uk's relationship with norway he was absolutely [27:16] glowing and then when he talks about the uk's relationship with the united states he was much [27:21] more vague and certainly not glowing so i will let you make up your own mind about what that might reveal [27:27] about the state of the special relationship and thirdly he was absolutely adamant that the uk's [27:33] response to the situation in the gulf between the us and iran was not hobbled in any way by this big [27:40] operation that the uk was mounting to shadow these three russian submarines he wants to be very very clear [27:47] about that and that's all for this episode of newscast thank you very much for listening [27:51] we'll be back with another episode of election cast very soon bye