The UK and allies tracked a Russian attack submarine and two spy submarines in the North Atlantic for a month before they retreated, Britain's defence minister John Healey has said.
He told a press conference in Downing Street that in the past few weeks, while many eyes were trained on the Middle East crisis, the UK, in partnership with Norway and other allies, responded to "increased Russian activity" in the Atlantic north of the UK.
This involved a Russian Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and two specialist submarines from Russia's ministry of defence deep sea research programme known as GUGI (Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research), he said.
Mr Healey said: "In response to the Russian submarines, I can confirm that I deployed our armed forces to track and to deter any malign activity by these vessels.
"A Royal Navy warship and Royal Air Force P8 aircraft alongside allies ensured that the Russian submarines were monitored 24/7.
"The Akula submarine subsequently retreated home, having been closely tracked throughout and we continued to monitor the two GUGI submarines in and around wider UK waters.
"Our armed forces left them in no doubt that they were being monitored, that their movements were not covert, as President Putin planned, and that their attempted secret operation had been exposed.
"Those GUGI submarines have now left UK waters and headed back north."
He said the month-long operation had now concluded.
