A British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines attempting to survey vital undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, ensuring they abandoned their mission, the defence secretary, John Healey, has announced.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Healey said the UK operation lasted more than a month and saw a Royal Navy warship and P8 marine patrol aircraft “track and to deter any malign activity” by three Russian submarines.

The Russian action took place “while the eyes of many were trained on the Middle East”, because of the US-Israel attack on Iran, Healey said.

He said: “I’m making this statement to call out this Russian activity, and to President Putin, I say: ‘We see you. We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences’.”

Healey said there was no evidence pipelines or cables had been damaged, but that with allies, UK forces would seek to verify this.

He said he would not give details of where the operation took place, or what infrastructure was being menaced by the Russian submarines, including two so-called Gugi deep-sea vessels. It was not in UK territorial waters, however, he added.

While saying there was a need for increased defence spending, he said the operation showed that the UK was capable of deterring Russia.

“I think the nature of the operation that I’ve set out today demonstrates that we have UK armed forces capable of detecting, capable of deterring, capable of responding if required in order to protect Britain, protect our vital undersea infrastructure,” he said.

Asked about Donald Trump’s disparaging remarks about the contribution to Nato of European countries, Healey said: “I’m not going to comment on social media posts. What I can reflect on is the conversations that I’ve had with his secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, both one to one, and when I sit next to him at Nato defence minister meetings.

“He is clear about the US, that they remain totally, totally committed to Nato and to article 5, but equally strong in requiring European Nato nations, like the UK to step up.”

More details soon …