UK naval chief says Russia’s Northern Fleet spending remains steady despite conflict

Russia's investment in its Northern Fleet is undiminished despite more years of conflict in Ukraine, the British navy's top naval commander said on Tuesday, adding that responding to Moscow's aggressive posture was testing for Western powers.

"Russian investment in their Northern Fleet, and in particular, in their subsurface capabilities, is undiminished," General Gwyn Jenkins, First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, told French think tank IFRI's naval conference in Paris.

"Despite the horrendous cost in terms of national resource and blood to Russia, of their egregious invasion of Ukraine, they have continued to pump resource into their Northern Fleet and their subsurface capabilities," he said.

Jenkins, who was speaking alongside top navy chiefs from the United States, France, Italy and the Netherlands, said Russia's activity was testing Western capabilities, given how long it took to upgrade, build and develop new vessels in a fast-changing technological environment.