French fishing trawler came ‘face to face' with Russian sub
The crew of the 25 metre Belenos trawler were shocked to see the Kilo-class vessel break the surface of the water just metres away from their boat as they were fishing near the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
One image, taken by a crew member, appears to show a figure emerging from the front of the conning tower, the raised structure that acts as the command centre.
Reports of the Russian craft's presence came as a French admiral on Wednesday revealed that a shadow fleet of 'around 900' ghost ships run by Russia, North Korea and Iran, ply the waves, with 'a dozen' passing through the Channel every day.
According to data from MarineTraffic, a ship tracking tool, the Belenos left Roscoff in Brittany at about 9am on Saturday. It then fished north of Roscoff, approaching the west coast of the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey when the encounter took place.
Ouest-France, the regional paper that broke the story, cited the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture, based in Brest, as playing down the incident. It said: 'It's a submarine that had been tracked for some time; it was simply in transit.'
However, the paper said it was 'very unusual for such a vessel to surface so close to a fishing boat'.
The prefecture said: 'A French frigate accompanied it as it headed south to enter the Mediterranean or sail along the African coast, as Russian units from the Northern Fleet [based in Severomorsk] or the Baltic Fleet [in Kaliningrad] regularly do.
'In general, Russian submarines do not hide because they know [we] are aware of their presence.'
'Only France dispatched a ship, but the information 'was passed on to allies', as required by protocol.'
The name of the submarine has not been disclosed but it appears to be a conventional diesel-electric attack submarine, such as those of the Kilo-class, which are produced in large numbers by Russia.
Breton fishermen are wary of clashing with submarines since the sinking of the Bugaled Breizh trawler on Jan 15 2004, which caused the death of all five crew members.
For years, the cause of the sinking was thought to be a collision with a Western submarine, but an inquest in 2021 found that the vessel was likely to have sunk because of a snagging of its equipment on the seabed, which forced it to stop and take on water.
The trawler sank in the waters off Lizard Point, not far from the area where the Belenos was operating on June 28.
The incident came as a French admiral told MPs that a ghost fleet of boats used to transport petrol in circumvention of sanctions may number 'around 900 ships'.
Admiral Benoit de Guibert, the maritime prefect for the Channel and the North Sea, said: 'The state's action is primarily to keep a particularly close watch on this fleet, which is estimated to consist of around 900 ships, including a dozen that are tracked daily in the English Channel.'
The clandestine fleet 'does not only concern Russian interests, but also those of other countries such as Iran and North Korea', he told MPs.
His assessment came after it emerged that a Russian warship disguised itself using a fake ID signal while travelling through the English Channel with two sanctioned oil tankers.
The Boikiy – a corvette armed with guided missiles – broadcast the fake ID code as it passed through the Channel earlier this month, according to the BBC.
It travelled alongside two vessels known to be part of Russia's 'shadow fleet' – a network of tankers whose ownership can be obscured and are used to transport sanctioned oil products.
It is thought that recent Western moves against the shadow fleet may have prompted Moscow to use its military to protect the tankers.
Last month, a Russian Su-35 fighter jet flew past a shadow fleet vessel and entered Estonian airspace after the country attempted to intercept the ship, which was suspected of carrying sanctioned oil.
Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist at the Centre for Naval Analyses, told the BBC: 'The action seems designed to deter the UK and other Nato states from attempting to board and, or, seize these vessels, since the presence of a military escort heightens the risk of confrontation and further escalation.'
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