Russia has a “pretty good map” of Britain’s crucial network of undersea cables, experts have warned – potentially presenting Vladimir Putin with a “vulnerable soft underbelly” to attack.

While separated by 21 miles of water, a web of cables and pipelines nonetheless connects the UK and Europe.

These lines carry critical civilian and military communications, electricity and gas – things that underpin the fabric of our society.

But it’s hard to constantly keep an eye on hundreds of miles of subsea cables, leaving them vulnerable to sabotage.

After damage to undersea cables in the Red Sea caused internet disruption in Asia and the Middle East, Sky News looks at what subsea cables are and what damage to one or more of them – accidental or otherwise – could mean for the UK.

A Russian ‘spy’ ship in English waters

When the Yantar research vessel sailed through the English Channel earlier this year, she was followed closely by HMS Somerset.

At first glance, it might be odd for a Royal Navy warship to be asked to shadow a civilian boat. But Britain doesn’t believe the Yantar is a civilian vessel, it believes it is used for Russian surveillance.

Defence Secretary John Healey spelled it out in parliament, saying: “Let me be clear, this is a Russian spy ship used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure.”

The Yantar complied with international rules of navigation, Mr Healey said. But this was not the first time it had been detected near Britain’s subsea installations, he added.

What are undersea cables?

There are around 60 sets of undersea cables branching out from the UK, Dr Sidharth Kaushal, an expert in maritime technology, told Sky News.

They are fairly wide, he says, and usually encased in a metal sheath. Closer to shore, they are often buried under concrete to further protect them. There are also pipelines which carry gas from the continent.

Some cables are in relatively shallow waters and are relatively easy to repair – they are often damaged unintentionally by commercial activity – while others are in deeper waters and require specialist equipment to fix if a problem arises.

A recent report from the IISS thinktank (the International Institute for Strategic Studies) highlighted the extent to which the European and global economies relies on them.

“Cables transmit around 95% of global data flows and underpin an estimated $10trn in financial transactions every day,” it said.

Making a map?

Experts believe Russia has spent recent years covertly mapping undersea cables in the West – some of which are military and whose locations are not public knowledge.

“We have seen an uptick in activity of Russian surveillance,” said RUSI thinktank expert Dr Kaushal.

Surface vessels have been gathering intelligence, but there have also been reports of Russian uncrewed submersibles being operated near undersea cables, he added.

“Given that this has been a persistent activity in an area on which they have placed some importance for quite some time… one would expect they have a pretty good map.”

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What does sabotage look like?

Severing undersea cables can have a detrimental impact on the countries they serve.

“There’s quite a bit of redundancy in the cable networks running across the Atlantic and indeed the cable networks that service the UK,” Dr Kaushal said. “It certainly would not be very easy to sabotage cables… in a way that would be impactful.”

While it might be easy for a hostile state to deny cutting one or two cables, a systematic effort to affect the UK by cutting enough to have an impact would be harder to disavow, he added.

This is particularly the case with cables that are in deeper water, reachable only by a handful of states.

Recent disruption to undersea cables has been blamed on “anchor-dragging by Russia’s shadow fleet”, the IISS said in its report.

In December, Finland seized the Eagle S oil ship which had been carrying Russian oil and was suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 undersea power cable in the Baltic Sea by dragging its anchor across it.

Russia has previously denied damaging undersea infrastructure.

Does the UK need to prepare?

Faced with an increasingly fraught international picture as the war in Ukraine grinds on, the UK parliament’s National Security Strategy committee launched an inquiry into undersea cables earlier this year.

It is examining how well the UK is able to defend its undersea infrastructure – and how resilient the nation would be in the event of a major, protracted disruption to our internet connection.

“Our internet cable network looks like an increasingly vulnerable soft underbelly,” chairman Matt Western MP said as the inquiry began.

“There is no need for panic – we have a good degree of resilience, and awareness of the challenge is growing. But we must be clear-eyed about the risks and consequences: an attack of this nature would hit us hard.”

Dr Kaushal argued that while there is a degree of redundancy in the undersea cables that serve the UK, the pipelines that bring gas to British homes are perhaps more vulnerable.

“I think in some ways the pipeline network is far more fragile because there we are more reliant on a handful of critical pipelines,” he said.

While the nature of Donald Trump’s second state visit is indeed unusual, from the moment Sir Keir Starmer delivered the gold-edged invitation it began a process steeped in tradition.

State visits are usually reserved to one per head of state, with Trump last hosted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.

Typically, second-term US presidents are offered a shorter visit, perhaps tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle. But the red carpet is literally being rolled out once again, with Trump receiving a second full state visit, with all the pomp and pageantry it entails.

An indication was given early on in Trump’s second term that he’d be receptive to a second state visit, and so – on perhaps the advice of the new prime minister – the King issued a second invitation.

The greatest form of tradition is one that always evolves, and so this may now set a new precedent for presidents who are voted out but then return to serve a second term.

Any nation can hold a state visit, but what is unique about Britain remains our internationally respected pageantry.

Even down to the very invitation – there is a very precise format for inviting someone on a state visit.

An invite must be issued, established by international law. Written on a special gold-edged paper, embossed with a golden coat of arms that is issued, it forms part of a historic archive.

Breaches of protocol

Much has been made in the past about moments where protocol was breached – Michelle Obama famously put her arm around Queen Elizabeth in 2011, but, in all honesty, I doubt very much the Queen was upset by this.

The fuss was not made by the late monarch, who accepted that what mattered was that Americans should be made very welcome on behalf of the UK.

And then criticism emerged against Trump, who appeared to make the Queen change places when the Guard of Honour was to be inspected.

But, in truth, it was Elizabeth II who had to correct herself because, in her long life as sovereign, she never escorted a visiting president.

The escort should stand further from the troops and her self-correction was misinterpreted as his error.

Trump’s visit this time will likely generate just as many headlines, but I don’t think there will be critical moments where a breach occurs.

What it means for Trump – and is it worth it?

Trump’s mother would cut out and keep in a scrapbook containing pictures of the young Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret Rose. It was an era before endless celebrity news, a time when public life revolved around the royals, the war, and survival.

And the president loved his mother, like many men do, so these things mean an enormous amount to him.

Read more:
No state visit has had a backdrop quite like this

When the horses go back to the stables and the carriages are put away, the impact of this visit will remain fresh in the mind of a president who may feel his nation – and maybe even he himself – have been affirmed by their ally.

Quite apart from the politics, although much will be said and written on that, there is one great hope for any state visit: that the country so many (myself included) have fought for can be safer and more successful as a result of the pomp and pageantry on display.

Downing Street has insisted its migrant returns scheme with France is not a “shambles” after the High Court blocked a man’s deportation.

Having seen the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme run into trouble with the courts, the Labour administration’s alternative suffered its own setback on Tuesday.

An Eritrean man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was due to be on a flight to France this morning.

He brought a legal claim against the Home Office, with lawyers acting on his behalf saying the case “concerns a trafficking claim”.

They also said he had a gunshot wound to his leg, and would be left destitute if he was deported.

The Home Office said it was reasonable to expect him to have claimed asylum in France before he reached the UK in August, but the ruling went in his favour.

Mr Justice Sheldon granted the man a “brief period of interim relief”.

While the judge said there did not appear to be a “real risk” he would face destitution in France, the trafficking claim required further interrogation.

He said the case should return to court “as soon as is reasonably practical in light of the further representations the claimant […] will make on his trafficking decision”.

A Number 10 spokesperson downplayed the development, insisting removals under the deal with France will start “imminently” and ministers are not powerless in the face of the courts.

‘We told you so’

The pilot scheme was announced to much fanfare in July, after Emmanuel Macron made a state visit to the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer had hoped the agreement – which would see the UK send asylum seekers who have crossed the Channel back over to France in exchange for migrants with links to Britain – would prove more resilient to court challenges than the Tories’ Rwanda plan.

He wants the number of migrants being returned to France to gradually increase over the course of the scheme, to deter them from coming in small boats.

The pilot came into force last month and is in place until June 2026.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was quick to say “we told you so” following Tuesday’s court decision, while Reform UK’s Nigel Farage criticised the government’s plan.

Mr Farage – who has said he would deport anyone who arrives in Britain illegally – said: “Even if the policy worked, one in, one out, and with another one in, still means plus one for everyone that crosses the Channel.”

The small boats crisis represents one of the biggest challenges for the new home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, following her promotion in Sir Keir’s recent reshuffle.

Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, Labour peer Maurice Glasman backed her to deliver.

Describing the former justice secretary as “very tough”, he said: “She’s completely for real. I’ve known her for over 10 years – she really wants to see law and order restored.”