Royal Navy intercepts Russian spy ship caught 'closely monitoring' Nato war games off Scotland and shadows two warships in the Channel

The Russian spy ship Viktor Leonov was caught closely watching Exercise Strike Warrior — a Nato exercise drawing together eight warships, 19 aircraft and more than 2,000 personnel from six nations — off the Outer Hebrides, leading Britain to scramble helicopters at short notice on a 376-mile deployment from Cornwall to Scotland. The 17-day operation, codenamed Operation Iceblast, also involved HMS Tyne and HMS Dauntless tracking Russian frigate Neustrashimy as it escorted vessels carrying sanctioned cargo through the English Channel.

It marked the first operational use of the RAF's Protector RG1 drone over British airspace, providing over 10 hours of surveillance of the Neustrashimy.

Royal Navy monitoring of Russian naval activity was up 25% across the first seven months of 2026 against the equivalent period in 2025.

Critics warned the Navy's success masked 'critical readiness challenges' facing Britain's armed forces.