The Royal Navy tracked a Russian warship taskforce by sea and air while it made its way along the Kent coast - at the same time President Zelensky visited the UK.

The corvette Boikiy was escorting the merchant vessel Baltic Leader on its voyage from Syria, through the English Channel to the North Sea.

HMS Somerset tracked the Russian vessels’ “every move” in the three-day mission, which culminated on Monday.

It came at the same time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in the country to meet European leaders in London and sign a £2.2 billion loan agreement, following his fall out with US President Donald Trump.

The Type 23 frigate utilised sensors and radars to track the Russian ships’ movements and launched her Merlin helicopter from 814 Naval Air Squadron to gather information from the sky.

The Navy worked with UK patrol aircraft and allied NATO forces during the operation.

It comes just over two weeks after the Royal Navy’s last shadowing mission – which saw HMS Iron Duke, HMS Tyne and RFA Tideforce monitor five ships, including three merchant vessels, as they sailed for a Russian Baltic port from Syria.

Cmdr Joel Roberts, commanding officer of HMS Somerset, said: “Somerset is well versed in the escort of Russian ships, having conducted these operations on a number of occasions.

“Great professionalism has been shown by the ship’s company to remain vigilant whilst operating in UK waters and integrating with our NATO Allies to monitor Russian activity around Europe.”

HMS Somerset and her crew began monitoring Boikiy on March 1, shadowing the warship as it headed south through the North Sea and English Channel to meet Baltic Leader to escort the vessel – which came from Syria – back to Russia.

The Plymouth-based warship remained on duty for the return journey as Boikiy and Baltic Leader met near the traffic separation scheme at Ushant, near France, before sailing through the Channel and into the North Sea.

It is the second time this year Somerset has been activated to track Russian ships.

In January, the frigate tracked the suspected spy vessel Yantar, alongside patrol ship HMS Tyne.