British defence minister John Healey said on Wednesday that "military options" are ready should the Russian spy ship Yantar become a threat, after the vessel directed lasers at British pilots sent to monitor it.

Britain's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF) routinely shadow potential threats to national security, and such missions to monitor Russian vessels and submarines have become more frequent since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“My message to Russia and to Putin is this: 'We see you. We know what you're doing',” Healey said during a briefing in London.

Healey said directing lasers at RAF pilots was "deeply dangerous" and Britain was poised to react depending on the Yantar's next move.

"We have military options ready should the Yantar change course," Healey said.

The Yantar, designed for intelligence gathering and mapping underseas cables, is currently on the edge of British waters, north of Scotland, he said.

"This is the first time we've had this action from Yantar directed against the British RAF. We take it extremely seriously," Healey said.

"I have changed the navy's rules of engagement so that we can follow more closely, monitor more closely, the activities of the Yantar when it's in our wider waters."

This isn't the first time the Yantar has probed Britain's defences, Healey said.

After a warning last year, the Yantar left UK waters for the Mediterranean. When the Russian ship later sailed through the English Channel in January, it was followed by HMS Somerset, a frigate assigned to homeland defence in the waters around Britain.