Russia is expanding its war against Ukraine into a new and largely unseen domain beneath the sea, with potentially catastrophic consequences for Britain’s national security, a leading undersea defence expert has warned.
Writing exclusively for LBC Opinion, Eugen Ciemnyjewski, chief executive of subsea security firm EUROATLAS, said Moscow is developing autonomous underwater drones capable of targeting the cables and pipelines that underpin modern life in the UK.
Mr Ciemnyjewski warned that while public attention remains focused on the fighting on land in Ukraine, the most dangerous battlefield may now lie out of sight on the ocean floor.
“When we think about modern warfare, we picture tanks crossing borders or missiles striking cities,” he wrote. “What we struggle to comprehend are battlefields that are less tangible, particularly beneath the sea. Yet it is this domain that poses one of the most serious threats to the UK’s national security.”
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Nearly all of Britain’s digital and economic activity relies on undersea infrastructure. Around 99 per cent of global internet traffic passes through subsea cables, while pipelines deliver oil and gas used to heat homes and power industry.
According to Mr Ciemnyjewski, reports earlier this year indicated that Russia is building a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles designed specifically to interfere with or destroy such infrastructure.
“These are stealthy systems capable of operating thousands of metres below the surface, far from public view and often beyond the reach of traditional naval patrols,” he said.
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He warned that an attack on undersea cables or pipelines could bring financial systems to a halt, trigger widespread power and internet outages, and cause panic across the country, without a single missile being fired.
“All of this could happen without a soldier ever setting foot on British soil,” he wrote.
The expert also highlighted what he described as a deliberate Russian strategy of ambiguity and deniability, with damage to subsea infrastructure easily dismissed as accidents.
“Anchors can drag, equipment can fail, sabotage can be written off as misfortune,” Mr Ciemnyjewski said. “That grey zone is not accidental. It is the strategy.”
His warning comes amid growing concern about Russian activity near critical infrastructure in UK waters. Last year, Russian vessels were detected operating close to subsea cables, while a so-called “shadow fleet” oil tanker was found anchored near the Scottish coast shortly after being seized in a US-led operation supported by Britain.
“These incidents are not random,” Mr Ciemnyjewski wrote. “They are tests of awareness, response times and resolve.”
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He argued that Britain’s approach to undersea security remains fragmented, falling between defence policy, energy security and digital infrastructure regulation, leaving responsibility unclear as the threat grows.
“Under the sea, there are no fences or checkpoints,” he said. “Only cables and pipelines quietly doing their job, assumed to be safe because they always have been. That assumption no longer holds.”
Mr Ciemnyjewski called for undersea infrastructure to be treated as a core pillar of national security, backed by a coherent national strategy, sustained investment and closer cooperation between government, defence and industry.
He also pointed to autonomous underwater surveillance systems as a way to close the capability gap, arguing that continuous monitoring could improve attribution and deter hostile action.
“The next war will not begin with explosions we can hear,” he warned. “It will start quietly, beneath the waves, with a severed cable and a nation suddenly cut off from the outside world.”
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