UK Navy claims intercept of Russian submarine, Russia surprised UK needed NATO to find it

Sputnik
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 12:22 UTC

© Sputnik/ Vladimir Astapkovich

The submarine, which is believed to be the Kilo-class submarine Stary Oskol, was detected in the sea on Tuesday evening, The Guardian reported.

It is now being escorted by UK Royal Navy frigate HMS Kent and is expected to pass the Strait of Dover later on Wednesday.

"Locating this submarine was a combined effort with NATO allies and shadowing such units is routine activity for the Royal Navy. We continue to escort the submarine as it conducts its passage, providing a visible presence," Cmdr. Daniel Thomas, HMS Kent's commanding officer, said as quoted by the newspaper.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday it would be "strange" if the UK navy failed to notice Russia's Stary Oskol submarine as it slowly traveled toward the Black Sea Fleet.

"The Russian Defense Ministry is surprised that joint UK-NATO efforts were required to discover a submarine traveling in a surfaced position at slow speed, accompanied by a tugboat. It would have been strange if the Royal Navy together with its NATO allies failed to notice the submarine, particularly considering the fact that our sailors have been greeted — according to an old tradition — by passing merchant vessels from different countries in the Barents, Norwegian and North seas over the past days," the ministry said in a statement.

Last month, the UK Defense Ministry said the Royal Air Force jets had escorted three aircraft claimed to be Russian military transport planes over the Baltic republics but did not disclose the date of the incident.

Comment: Contrary to Article 44 of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, to which the UK and Russia are both party, the UK has engaged in extensive illegal harassment of this Russian naval submarine engaged in fully lawful transit of the Dover Strait.

A Russian naval vessel en route between the Baltic and Black Seas is fully and specifically entitled under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Articles 37 and 38 to the right of passage through the strait. This is in addition to the general right of passage through the territorial sea at Article 17. The Russian navy was in full compliance with the provision at Article 20 that, while in territorial waters, the submarine must be on the surface and displaying its flag, and in compliance with Articles 29 to 32 on warships.

Not only does the Russian Navy have every right to sail through the Dover strait on passage, it has been exercising that right - along with many other navies - for over a hundred years. The decision of the British government now to employ military harassment and threat is not only illegal, it is a gross and entirely deliberate act of provocation designed to sour international relations and disturb the atmosphere of world peace.