Russia behind ‘staggeringly reckless’ sabotage in Europe, says head of UK’s MI6
Russia is waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe while also stepping up its nuclear sabre-rattling to scare other countries off from backing Ukraine, the head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said on Friday.
Richard Moore said in a speech in Paris on Friday that were Vladimir Putin to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he would not stop there, reports Reuters.
“Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic- will be jeopardised,” he said, adding:
We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre-rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine.”
He said the cost of supporting Ukraine was well known, but added:
The cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.”
Reuters repots that Moore’s speech seemed aimed at rallying wavering European allies and any sceptics in the incoming US administration of Donald Trump about the importance of Ukraine. He joins other western intelligence officials in warning about increasing Russian sabotage actions.
Nato and western intelligence services have said that Russia is behind a growing number of hostile activities across the Euro-Atlantic area, ranging from repeated cyber-attacks to Moscow-linked arson – all of which Russia denies.
The UK’s domestic spy chief said last month that Russia’s GRU military intelligence service was seeking to cause “mayhem” across the UK and Europe. And sources familiar with US intelligence told Reuters this week that Russia was likely to expand its campaign of sabotage against European targets to increase pressure on the west over its support for Kyiv.
Moore added that cooperation between the UK and the US had made its societies safer, and that that would continue. “I worked successfully with the first Trump administration to advance our shared security and look forward to doing so again,” he said.
Key events
Abandoning Ukraine means ‘infinitely higher’ long-term security costs, MI6 chief says
Dan Sabbagh
Abandoning Ukraine would jeopardise British, European and American security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term, the head of MI6 has warned in a speech that amounted to a plea to Donald Trump to continue supporting Kyiv.
Richard Moore, giving a rare speech, said he believed Vladimir Putin “would not stop” at Ukraine if he was allowed to subjugate it in any peace talks involving the incoming US Republican administration.
“If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there. Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised,” Moore said during an address given in Paris alongside his French counterpart.
The spy chief was touted earlier this week as a possible surprise appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US, though he is not thought to be pressing for the job. The former Labour minister Peter Mandelson is considered the frontrunner for a critical role at a delicate time in transatlantic relations.
Moore has served as the head of MI6 for four years in what is normally considered a five-year job. At the start of his tenure he overlapped with the Trump adviser Richard Grenell, who was the acting director of national intelligence and has now been identified as a possible US envoy tasked with trying to find an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump has complained about the expense of supporting Kyiv and said repeatedly that he wants to end the war, claiming he could do so “within 24 hours”. JD Vance, the vice-president-elect, has suggested freezing the conflict on the current frontlines, and denying Ukraine Nato membership for an extended period.
“The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known,” said Moore. “But the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds, China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.”
A key British argument to the incoming Trump administration is to try to link the war in Ukraine with US concerns about the rising military might of China, emphasising that the arrival of North Korean troops is bringing authoritarianism from Asia into what was previously a European conflict.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) has set up a taskforce to head off any foreign state attempts to influence the upcoming federal election after last month warning of increased Russian-sponsored espionage and sabotage, reports Reuters.
It said possible attempts at disinformation, cyber-attack, spying or sabotage could be made ahead of the snap vote set for 23 February after the collapse earlier this month of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious three-way coalition.
“Against the backdrop of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia probably has the greatest and most obvious interest in influencing the election in its own favour,” the BfV said in a statement, noting it was also keeping an eye on other actors. Such actors could seek to actively support individual candidates or parties or discredit other candidates and parties or the democratic process itself, seizing on opportunities, the BfV said.
Germany is Ukraine’s second biggest financial and military backer. That has resulted in a sharp rise in “aggressive behaviour” by the Kremlin towards Germany, as to other Ukraine allies, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said last month.
Parcels that exploded at logistics depots in Europe including in Germany, for example, were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the US, according to western security officials, reports Reuters.
Acts of sabotage could, in addition to causing physical damage, also have a psychological impact on voters as well as on political decision makers, the BfV said.
According to Reuters, the BfV also warned against disinformation, given that Russia had been “offensively increasing” the distribution of pro-Russian and anti-western narratives, hoping to divide German society and reduce support for Ukraine.
Cyber-attacks, in particular hack-and-leak operations, were a further danger, as well as the use of artificial intelligence to produce deepfake videos to dupe voters, it said.
Support for Russia-friendly parties – notably the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Aliance – has been on the rise in recent months, with both parties faring well in elections in eastern Germany in September.
In April, a senior member of the AfD was accused of receiving money from a pro-Russian media site, allegations he denied.
Here is a video of the head of the UK’s foreign intelligence service saying, on Friday, that Russia was conducting a “staggeringly reckless” sabotage campaign against Ukraine’s western allies, and intelligence services were working to stop the consequences from spiralling out of control:
Richard Moore spoke alongside Nicolas Lerner, the head of France’s external intelligence agency, the DGSE, at an event marking 120 years of the Entente Cordiale, a pact between the UK and France that binds the countries together as military and diplomatic allies.
Pjotr Sauer
Police have clashed with protesters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, after the country’s ruling party said the government would suspend talks on EU accession until 2028.
The interior ministry on Friday reported the arrest of 43 protesters, with three police officers injured, two of whom were taken to hospital.
Police fired water cannon and deployed pepper spray and teargas to disperse protesters as masked people tried to smash their way into the parliament. Some protesters threw fireworks at police while shouting “Russians” and “slaves”.
Thousands of pro-EU protesters had blocked streets in the capital before the altercations began. The country’s outgoing pro-EU figurehead president, Salome Zourabichvili, accused the government of declaring “war” on its own people and confronted riot police, asking whether they served Georgia or Russia.
“Today marks a significant point, or rather, the conclusion of the constitutional coup that has been unfolding for several weeks,” she told a news conference alongside opposition leaders. “Today, this nonexistent and illegitimate government declared war on its own people,” she added, calling herself the Georgia’s “sole legitimate representative”.
The government announcement came hours after the European parliament adopted a non-binding resolution rejecting the results of Georgia’s 26 October parliamentary elections, alleging “significant irregularities”.
The resolution called for new elections within a year under international supervision and for sanctions to be imposed on top Georgian officials from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, including the prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze.
Ukraine on Friday accused Georgia of trying to “please Moscow” after prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, said his country would suspend EU accession talks, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said:
Ukraine is disappointed by the decision of the Georgian government to suspend EU accession negotiations until 2028. This decision, as well as the use of force against a peaceful protest, is evidence of the curtailment of democratic processes in the country to please Moscow.”
Ukraine on Friday said Russian authorities returned more than 500 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, with most having died in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia and Ukraine have been exchanging bodies and prisoners of war since the first months of the conflict – with casualties estimated to be high on both sides.
“As a result of repatriation activities, the bodies of 502 fallen defenders were returned to territory controlled by the government of Ukraine,” Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said on social media, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The centre said that 397 of the bodies were returned from the Donetsk region, where fighting is most intense. It said 24 were returned from the eastern Luhansk region and 64 from the southern Zaporizhzhia area, while 17 were handed back from morgues on Russian territory.
“We are grateful for the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” Kyiv’s centre said. It said the bodies will be taken for forensic medical examination and that “together with the expert institutions, the deceased will be identified as soon as possible.”
Russia, for its part, does not announce the return of its bodies.
Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has visited two key Ukrainian-held sites in the Donetsk region, the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhhove, where he said Ukrainian forces were continuing to repel Russian advances.
Reuters quotes him saying, via the Telegram messaging app, that:
Based on the results of the work, all necessary decisions have been made to strengthen the units with reserves, additional ammunition, weapons, and military equipment. We continue to restrain the enemy and inflict heavy losses in terms of their manpower and equipment.
Reuters, citing Swedish police, reports that an unidentified drone flew over the Russian embassy in Stockholm early on Friday, dropping paint on the grounds of the diplomatic compound.
No arrests have been made and no suspects identified, a police spokesperson added.
There was a reported case of vandalism at Sweden’s embassy in Moscow on Thursday, and Sweden’s foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard has urged Russia to ensure the protection of Sweden’s diplomatic mission and its staff.
The number of people wounded by a Russian strike on Daryiv in the Kherson region has risen to two, according to local authorities.
Local media reports that 70% of customers in Mykolaiv and the surrounding region have been without electricity for a second day as a result of Russian attacks on the energy infrastructure.
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from Ukraine, Russian-occupied Ukraine, and Russia.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that a 57-year-old woman has been hospitalised after a Russian strike on Daryiv in the Kherson region, which is close to the Dnipro River. Russia holds control of the southern portion of Kherson region, on the river’s left bank.
German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, assured Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Germany’s continued support in a call on Friday in which they agreed to stay in contact, also with a view on possible paths to a just peace, he said on social platform X.
“We will continue our military support for Ukraine in close coordination with our European and international partners. I agreed with Zelenskiy that we will remain in contact – also with a perspective to possible paths to a just peace,” he wrote.
Russia behind ‘staggeringly reckless’ sabotage in Europe, says head of UK’s MI6
Russia is waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe while also stepping up its nuclear sabre-rattling to scare other countries off from backing Ukraine, the head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said on Friday.
Richard Moore said in a speech in Paris on Friday that were Vladimir Putin to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he would not stop there, reports Reuters.
“Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic- will be jeopardised,” he said, adding:
We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre-rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine.”
He said the cost of supporting Ukraine was well known, but added:
The cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.”
Reuters repots that Moore’s speech seemed aimed at rallying wavering European allies and any sceptics in the incoming US administration of Donald Trump about the importance of Ukraine. He joins other western intelligence officials in warning about increasing Russian sabotage actions.
Nato and western intelligence services have said that Russia is behind a growing number of hostile activities across the Euro-Atlantic area, ranging from repeated cyber-attacks to Moscow-linked arson – all of which Russia denies.
The UK’s domestic spy chief said last month that Russia’s GRU military intelligence service was seeking to cause “mayhem” across the UK and Europe. And sources familiar with US intelligence told Reuters this week that Russia was likely to expand its campaign of sabotage against European targets to increase pressure on the west over its support for Kyiv.
Moore added that cooperation between the UK and the US had made its societies safer, and that that would continue. “I worked successfully with the first Trump administration to advance our shared security and look forward to doing so again,” he said.
Russia launched more than 100 drones at Ukraine overnight and early on Friday, killing one person and injuring eight others, officials said.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that Friday’s drone barrage came a day after Russia launched about 90 missiles on Ukraine, cutting power to over a million people.
A drone attack killed a woman in the southern city of Kherson, the head of the local military administration, Roman Mrochko, said. Meanwhile, at least two regions suffered power cuts on Friday, Ukrainian electricity operator Ukrenergo said.
“Emergency repair works are ongoing around the clock. By the end of the day, the power company plans to restore power to the de-energised customers in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions,” it said, according to AFP.
Moscow said on Friday it had seized the village of Rozdolne in the southern part of Ukraine’s Donbas region, where it has made a string of territorial gains in recent months.
Russia downed 47 attack drones fired overnight by Ukraine, mainly targeting the Rostov border region where a major fire broke out at an industrial site, authorities said.
