Secretive Russian submarine unit ‘could be on way to sabotage UK’s vital cables’
A specialist Russian submarine unit which targets vital undersea infrastructure may be heading to British waters, the head of the Navy has warned.
The Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research – known by the Russian acronym GUGI – is one of the most secretive elements of Vladimir Putin’s military.
GUGI vessels are sent to sweep the seabed undetected, tracking down any possible points of vulnerability for countries like the UK which rely heavily on cables and pipes that connect to the continent.
In a speech earlier this month, First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins said spy ships like the Yantar are ‘only the visible bit you see in public and it’s not the bit that worries me most’.
He said: ‘It’s what’s going on under the waves that most concerns me.’
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In an interview with the Financial Times today, Jenkins said Moscow recently had ‘issues’ with the GUGI programme.
But he added: ‘It appears that they have reset that programme. So we’re expecting them to deploy again.’
The return of the undersea operation would give Putin the ‘option for physical action’, he said.
On December 4, Defence Secretary John Healey unveiled a new multi-million pound high-tech force targeting the Russian subs that threaten undersea infrastructure.
Atlantic Bastion will involve Royal Navy warships and aircraft working alongside autonomous vehicles and AI technology to stop enemies from damaging telecommunications cables and oil pipelines.
The government has said Russian activity off the British coast has increased by 30% over the past two years, with the Yantar ship seen twice in 2025.
In his FT interview, Jenkins warned the UK does ‘effectively’ have a border with Russia, which is the ‘open seas to our north’.
He added that any supposed reassurance that ‘somehow we have eastern Europe between us and that threat is a misplaced complacency’, and the comfort taken from being an island is ‘a false comfort’.
Last month, a report from Parliament’s Defence Committee said the UK ‘lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territory’.
The committee, chaired by Labour MP Tan Dhesi, blasted the government’s lack of movement on defence matters.
A ‘national conversation’ on security mooted by the Strategic Defence Review has not yet begun, the report says, while a proposed Defence Readiness Bill is yet to be written.
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