LONDON: A Russian patrol aircraft staged "unsafe" activity near the UK's flagship aircraft carrier as it conducted Nato air defence operations off Iceland, Britain's defence ministry said on Monday. The Bear-F plane "repeatedly approached" the carrier group last week, passing the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier "unnecessarily close" at low altitude and dropping numerous sonar devices nearby, according to the ministry.
Two UK F-35 warplanes were dispatched from the carrier to intercept and escort the patrol plane until it departed, it added. "This activity was unsafe and unprofessional," an ministry spokesperson said of Thursday's incident in the Norwegian Sea in the so-called High North. The allegations emerged as the ministry said Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis and Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir had visited HMS Prince of Wales over the weekend.
The Royal Navy carrier is leading the group on a mission to defend the North Atlantic "against increasing Russian threats", according to the ministry. The mission has seen F-35 jets conduct Nato air defence operations from a European aircraft carrier for the first time, and comes amid heightened tensions with Russia.
Military experts and European leaders say Russia has ramped up its "hybrid war" tactics in the strategic region. "We live in an increasingly dangerous and uncertain time, and it's deployments like this, supported by allies and partners including Iceland, that improve our deterrence and defence as part of Nato," Jarvis said in a statement.
In the statement, Gunnarsdottir added the deployment was "a clear demonstration of Nato's enhanced presence in this strategically important region". Jarvis only took up his post less than a month ago after predecessor John Healey quit, accusing the government of failing to commit enough money in a modernisation plan to protect Britain.
The shock resignation prompted further last-minute wrangling for extra money for the 10-year Defence Investment Plan. Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled the plan last week, announcing the government was aiming to spend almost £300 billion over the next four years. The proposals see an extra £15 billion being pumped into defence spending up to 2030, the year by which UK intelligence has suggested Russia could attack a Nato country. But it fell far short of the reported £28 billion the MoD had requested.
Meanwhile, Russia fired missiles and drones into apartment buildings in Kyiv for the second time in a week on Monday, killing at least 14 people on the eve of a crucial Nato summit, authorities said. President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the alliance to take "strong decisions" on boosting Ukraine's air defences following the strike, which came just days after another Russian attack killed more than 30 people in Kyiv. The European Union also said that Ukraine needs air defence reinforcements.
The morning strike punched a crater into a multi-storey apartment block in the Ukrainian capital, ripping its top floors into two. Reporters heard more than 10 explosions during a ballistic missile alert during the night, with flashes in the sky as the blasts rang out. It was the second attack in a week in which Russia deployed the hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles — triggering Zelensky's desperate new appeal for allies to send advanced missiles for the US-made Patriot air defence systems.
He is to discuss the war with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Ankara, which begins on Tuesday. "It is critically important that the world — first and foremost the United States and our European partners — come out of the Nato Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defence, and thus the protection of ordinary people's lives," he said on social media.
At least 14 people were killed in Kyiv and the surrounding region, with around 60 more wounded, he said. Russia fired 68 missiles and 351 attack drones, he added. Officials in the Kyiv suburb of Vyshneve said they were evacuating residents due to the possibility of unexploded munitions in the debris. — AFP
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