Isle of Man utilities provider highlights threats of Russian spy ships to infrastructure

Manx Utilities has highlighted the threat posed to subsea cables from foreign survey ships operating in our territorial waters.

The warning came from the MU’s chief executive Philip King in its latest annual report, for the year 2024-25, to be laid before the July Tynwald sitting.

Mr King said: ‘In addition to weather events, we have also seen new threats to our services emerge with foreign survey ships operating in the Irish Sea.

‘We monitor activities around our subsea assets and work with relevant stakeholders to mitigate the risks that such activities can present to the Isle of Man.’

In November 2024, the Yantar - officially a Russian ‘research vessel’ - but widely believed to have more sinister duties - was recorded sailing off the north west coast of the island.

The vessel was only tracked after briefly turning on her automatic identification system.

While off the Manx coast, Yantar was apparently shadowed by minehunter HMS Cattistock while it was also monitored from the air.

The vessel is alleged to have been carrying out surveillance of subsea structures such as gas pipelines and internet cables and it thought unlikely it was attempting sabotage.

A spokesperson for MU said: ‘Manx Utilities monitors activity around its critical infrastructure assets as part of normal asset management and resilience arrangements.

‘Our focus is on the security and reliability of essential services, and we work with relevant agencies where appropriate.

‘We do not comment on the movements, nationality or intentions of individual vessels, nor on security-related operational matters. There has been no impact on Manx Utilities services arising from vessel activity.’

Question about the incident were raised in the House of Keys.

Chief Minister Alfred Cannan told MHKs that the presence of the Yantar was monitored by UK defence assets as a routine procedure and there was an expectation that such an incident would reoccur.

He said: ‘The activities of the UK defence forces are not public knowledge but I am confident that assets in the Irish Sea are a matter of concern and proper defence assets are distributed accordingly.’