The U.K. intercepted a Russian warship and a tanker off Britain's southern coast in the past fortnight, the British government has said—days after it sharply criticized a Russian spy vessel operating to its north.

HMS Severn intercepted Russia's Stoikiy corvette and Yelnya tanker as part of a "round-the-clock shadowing operation" off Britain's southern coast, the British Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

The vessels sailed through the Dover Strait, which separates southeastern England from northern France, before heading west through the English Channel, the ministry said. Another NATO country picked up monitoring duties off the coast of the French region of Brittany, the government said.

Two British ships and a helicopter squadron shadowed the Stoikiy in the English Channel back in

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