Royal Navy vessels have been called to shadow Russian ships in British watersÂ

Earlier this month HMS St Albans was called to intercept a Russian cruiser as it prowled the English Channel.

It was a similar action to that taken by the ship in April, when it was again called to track Russian vessels in British waters.

While in August of this year, HMS Diamond was scrambled to shadow two Russian warships as they passed through the English Channel.

The Type 45 destroyer '“ which returned to Portsmouth on Friday following a two-month stint in the Mediterranean '“ sailed from Dover to monitor the Russian destroyer Severomorsk and cruiser Marshal Ustinov as they passed through UK waters.

And in 2016, diamond's sister ship, HMS Duncan and Type 23 frigate HMS Richmond were called to '˜man-mark' a Russian battlegroup as it passed through the English Channel en route to Syria.

They were then picked up by St Albans as the Russian ships made the return journey in 2017.