Three operations in 17 days
To reach Leonov, the Merlins flew from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose in Cornwall to Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
In the Channel, destroyer HMS Dauntless and patrol ship HMS Tyne tracked the frigate Neustrashimy from 1 to 14 October as it escorted sanctioned cargo ships. Between 11 and 14 October, Tyne also intercepted the landing ship Aleksandr Shabalin, which was escorting cargo ship MV Energy-2 and a tug. The Navy said Russia had been forced to use Neustrashimy for three months to protect its shipments.
Sanctions are driving the escorts
The rise follows the seizure of the sanctioned tanker Smyrtos by Royal Marines in June. It was the first time British troops had boarded a shadow fleet vessel. Britain has now sanctioned more than 500 vessels. Russia’s oil and gas revenues fell 24% year on year in 2025.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says escort duty uses up valuable Russian operational capacity. Monitoring them takes British ships too. In July, four Royal Navy warships and their helicopters spent 21 days on operations monitoring Russian activity. On 20 July, HMS Tyne closed to five nautical miles while Neustrashimy fired its guns outside UK and French territorial waters.
A longer trend
The increase predates the Smyrtos boarding. The MoD’s annual report says Royal Navy vessels were activated 116 times in the year to March 2026, shadowing 61 Russian warships and 28 merchant vessels. That was 30% more Russian naval activity than two years earlier. It included operations against the spy ship Yantar, which was spotted near undersea cables off Scotland in November 2025.
What to watch
The MoD expects similar operations in the coming months as Russian military and commercial ships pass through waters around the UK. Russian escorts have followed British enforcement action. Further boardings of shadow fleet tankers would likely bring more Russian warships into the Channel and the North Sea, raising the stakes for shipping operators, insurers and owners of seabed infrastructure.