A joint NATO operation encountered Russian submarines attempting to destroy a vital undersea cable in the Arctic.

Two Western officials told Reuters that they uncovered covert Russian GUGI undersea warfare submarines trying to destroy a cable near Svalbard.

Britain, Norway and the United States were involved in the exercise and managed to stop the submarines.

The vital undersea cables are used to connect countries to the internet and have been targeted before.

The cables connecting Svalbard to Norway lie 2,700 metres below the surface.

Russia has continued to deny targeting the vital fibre optic cables.

It comes as the government says Russian activity off the British coast has increased by 30% over the past two years.

The Ministry of Defence suspects ships such as the Yantar – which were spotted on the edge of UK waters twice this last year– are being used to map pipelines and cables.

The UK relies on subsea infrastructure for 99% of its international telecommunications data, as well as basic energy supplies like electricity, oil and gas.

According to the recent strategic defence review (SDR), the sea is becoming ‘increasingly vulnerable’, with adversaries ‘more willing to threaten the free flow of critical commodities’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, .

MORE: Russia jails man for 14 years for taking pictures of graves

MORE: Putin is ‘divorced from reality’ and army bosses are ‘lying to him’ over Ukraine demands

MORE: Russia warns Germany is ‘starting a real war’ after blaming Putin for airport attack