THE UK Defence Secretary has praised the “remarkable achievement” of Glasgow’s shipbuilders as a new frigate was moved onto the Clyde.

The new type 26 frigate, HMS Glasgow, is structurally complete and has been slowly rolled from the shipyard’s hard standing in Govan onto a barge for transport down river.

The 149-metre warship will be taken to deeper water where the barge will be submerged, allowing HMS Glasgow to float for the first time.

It is expected to enter service with the Royal Navy around the middle of the decade as its systems and weapons are still to be installed.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace visited the shipyard, where he saw the frigate being rolled on to the barge.

He said: “I think it’s a remarkable achievement by the workforce here, who’ve built basically the world’s leading anti-submarine warfare ship.”

Mr Wallace said the first type 26 ship was coming out of the shipyard late but not “catastrophically” so, saying he is confident HMS Glasgow and the other frigates will enter service in time.

He added: “The one thing Putin is going to have left after his illegal invasion is a navy and an air force.

“He uses his submarines, and they are good submarines, very well to intimidate.

“We’ve seen worries about critical national infrastructure, gas pipelines, internet cables. We need ships that are going to hunt those submarines or deter them, and that’s the role the ships are going to take.”

Russian submarines will “stay away” if they know a type 26 frigate is in the water, he said.

The Defence Secretary said the Russian president is targeting Ukraine’s power grid and other civilian infrastructure to “mask” his military failures.

Ukraine’s energy facilities have been pounded by a barrage of Russian missile strikes, causing blackouts and leaving millions without heat, power or water as temperatures plummet.

He added: “On the civil front, they’ve got to protect that national infrastructure that Putin is deliberately targeting in the hope that he wrecks their economy and it means they struggle very greatly during the winter.”

He noted the illegality of targeting civilian infrastructure under international law, adding that “we’re not going to let that type of bullying and brutality be successful”.

The Defence Secretary added: “Part of this targeting does show he’s got a sense of desperation that his army is not being successful.”

Mr Wallace pointed to Moscow’s recent withdrawal from Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Mr Putin’s army during the invasion to date.

It is also “interesting” that a slew of Russian commanders have been fired, he added.

He said: “So I think to mask that Putin has been just trying to blow up people’s infrastructure.”

But Mr Wallace warned against underestimating the Kremlin.

He said: “Russia is a country that at the moment does not care about its own people and which young men it sends to their deaths, and it will just keep on pushing those people in.

“I think it’s really, really important that we show international commitment and support and solidarity for Ukraine.”

Earlier, British defence experts said many Russian troops are being compelled to serve in Ukraine with “serious” health problems, while those forced to build trenches under fire are likely to have suffered “particularly heavy casualties”.

A number of “common themes” are emerging in the experience of Moscow’s mobilised reservists, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, with their deployment often characterised by “inadequate” training and personal equipment.

HMS Glasgow currently has a displacement of 6,000 tonnes and will later have sonar, radar and weapons systems installed.

The second and third ships in the class, HMS Cardiff and HMS Belfast, are still under construction in Govan.