The Russian frigate RFS Admiral Grigorovich (F494) has been lurking in the English Channel since the end of April, evidently to escort dark fleet tankers carrying Russian oil transiting through the English Channel. The goal is to protect them from the ship seizures now being carried out by the British as well as the French government.
Since the seizure on June 14 of the sanctioned Cameroon-flagged Aframax Smyrtos (IMO 9389100), this mission has become a critical task for the Russian Navy, given that almost all tankers exporting crude and LNG from the primary Russian terminals at Primorsk and Ust-Luga need to transit through the English Channel if they are otherwise not to have to divert around Ireland – on a route where they are still vulnerable to interception. Given the Ukrainian long-range sanctions program affecting both Primorsk and Ust-Luga, more traffic is now coming out of Murmansk and the Kola Peninsula as well, and these tankers also need to pass through the English Channel, where geography puts them at risk of maritime interdictors.
Fires burning in Ust-Luga, post a Ukrainian attack in June captured on social media
In late June, the Admiral Grigorovich was observed by the Offshore Patrol Vessel HMS Tyne (P281) conducting a fuel transfer with the Project 304 Amur Class floating repair ship (PM-82), not the first occasion where these two ships have been seen alongside each other. The operation was conducted in the area of the Galloper Wind Farm, which lies 15 nautical miles off the Suffolk coast in the North Sea. Amur Class vessels were designed to fulfill the role of dockside base repair workshops, so a ship-to-ship refueling operation at sea is a makeshift procedure outside their normal operating parameters, and with implicit risks.
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Also pressed into service by the Royal Navy to keep watch on the Admiral Grigorovich (F494) has been the Type 23 frigate HMS Somerset (F82), OPVs HMS Severn (P282) and HMS Mersey (P283), and the Hunt Class minehunter HMS Ledbury (M30), as well as naval helicopters. The persistent Russian presence in the Channel, which has also seen the Ropucha Class landing ship RFS Aleksander Shabalin (LST110) and the tanker MV Mikhail Britnev (IMO 9081370) passing through recently, is a manifestation of the increased Russian threat that the British defense budget is now being stressed by. Dealing with this is a good test of improvisation skills, but it is imposing a considerable strain on the ingenuity of naval planners, as well as on ships’ crews diverted from planned training, port visits, and leave.
The operation to keep a watchful eye on the Russians lingering in the Channel is also necessary because the Aframax Smyrtos is being detained off Weymouth, with its crew still aboard. The captain is being detained onshore, and the British government is proceeding with plans to seize and sell the cargo on board, potentially to gift the proceeds to the Ukrainian government. It would be embarrassing if the Smyrtos were to be buccaneered.
