Russian warship tracked near British waters

HMS Somerset (rear) followed Russian corvette Boikiy (front) through the English Channel

The Royal Navy has released images of a Russian warship which it tracked sailing near British waters.

The corvette Boikiy was part of a task group which was tracked by HMS Somerset for three days as it made its way through the English Channel and North Sea, escorting a merchant vessel on its return from Syria to Russia.

Patrol aircraft and Nato forces also assisted with the monitoring operation, the navy said.

Boikiy is one of several Russian vessels to have been tracked sailing near the British coast in recent months.

The Royal Navy said its operation began on Saturday as the Russian warship headed south through the North Sea and English Channel to meet the merchant vessel, known as Baltic Leader, to escort it back to Russia.

Somerset, a British Type 23 frigate, used its radar system to report on the movements and a Merlin helicopter from its naval air squadron was also launched to gather information from the sky.

The Russian merchant ship was transporting military hardware from the Russian naval base in Tartus, Syria, with crew on the accompanying warship seen burning papers and manning the ship's machine guns, the Times reported.

BBC Verify has analysed satellite imagery and found the Baltic Leader docked in Tartus on 1 February. At the time, its publicly-available tracker was turned off, according to ship tracking site MarineTraffic.

It is not possible to see what is on the ship, but imagery shows a number of containers and other items on the dock nearby.

According to shipping database Equasis, the owner of the Baltic Leader is Russian shipping company MG-Flot LLC - which was sanctioned by the UK government after being accused of helping Russia to destabilise Ukraine.

In 2022, the vessel was also sanctioned by the US due to its links to Russian lender Promsvyazbank, one of the Russian entities targeted by the US and European countries in the aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The ship's commanding officer, Cdr Joel Roberts, said: "Somerset is well-versed in the escort of Russian ships, having conducted these operations on a number of occasions.

"Great professionalism has been shown by the ship's company to remain vigilant whilst operating in UK waters and integrating with our Nato allies to monitor Russian activity around Europe."

HMS Somerset monitored the Russian vessel's movements over the three-day operation

It is the second time this year that Somerset has been used to track Russian activity off the British coast.

The operation comes two weeks after the navy monitored five ships, including three merchant vessels, as they sailed for a Russian Baltic port from Syria.

And in January, Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs the Royal Navy had monitored a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters - accusing the vessel, Yantar, of being used to gather intelligence and map the UK's underwater infrastructure.

He said the incident was "another example of growing Russian aggression", in claims which were described as "absolutely baseless" by the Russian embassy in London.

Western nations have often tracked Yantar operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables.

Russia has been accused of stepping up this activity since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Additional reporting by André Rhoden-Paul and BBC Verify's Joshua Cheetham and Erwan Rivault