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21 Nov 2025
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21 Nov 2025
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Credit: Wikimedia Commons
A Russian spy ship that has been described as "deeply dangerous" is set to arrive in Irish waters.
The Yantar is a classified warship under Article 29 in the Law of the Sea Convention.
It has been accused of dangerous activity by British Defence Secretary John Healy, who claims that crew onboard the ship pointed lasers at RAF pilots when arriving off the coast of Scotland.
That's according to an article on Newstalk.
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John Healy is a Labour MP as well as the Secretary of State for Defence in England.
He posted on social media platform, X, to share his concern.
Be in no doubt, we live in a new era of threat.
— John Healey (@JohnHealey_MP) November 19, 2025
A Russian spy ship, the Yantar, returned to UK waters and directed lasers at our pilots.
Our government will always do what’s needed to defend Britain, and our Armed Forces stand ready to deter. pic.twitter.com/SpxwFiNnKF
Former head of the Defence Forces, Vice Mark Mellet also expressed concern.
"For the last 20 years we’ve seen pretty aggressive Russian action in terms of its invasion of Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014 and the very hostile attack on Ukraine in 2022," he told Newstalk Breakfast.
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He added that the warship has used drones, sabotage, and disinformation in the past and says the Navy would be "very challenged" in how it can deal with the ship.
"The Yantar has an entitlement to enter our economic zone and we’re quite constrained in what we can do and what we can’t do. What we can do is gather information to see what its activities are; if those activities are perverse, then it’s a matter for Government to deal with that," Vice Mark Mellet said.
He added that the capability of the Defence Forces are limited and urged the government to invest in them.
In Budget 2026, the Department of Defence was allocated 11% more funds that the previous year.
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