Europe is the target of a “staggeringly reckless” campaign of Russian sabotage, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service has said.
MI6 chief Richard Moore said Russia’s is targeting Ukraine’s allies in the West and his spies are battling to stop the consequences from spiralling out of control.
In a message aimed in part at US President-Elect Donald Trump, Mr Moore said a Russian victory in Ukraine threatens security in the US as well as Europe.
Mr Moore said MI6 and its French counterpart are working together to address the risks in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “mix of bluster and aggression”.
He said in a speech to diplomats and intelligence officials in France: “We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear saber-rattling, to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine.”
The MI6 chief added: “Such activity and rhetoric is dangerous and beyond irresponsible.”
Mr Moore spoke alongside Nicolas Lerner, head of France’s external intelligence agency, the DGSE, at an event marking 120 years of the Entente Cordiale, a pact between Britain and France which binds the two countries together as military and diplomatic allies.
The anniversary comes as Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence is trying to destabilise Ukraine’s allies through disinformation, sabotage and arson.
Moscow has been linked by Western officials to several attacks in Europe, including an alleged plot to burn down Ukrainian-owned businesses in London.
The Kremlin has also been linked to incendiary devices found in packages on cargo planes. One caught fire at a courier hub in Germany in July and another ignited at a warehouse in Birmingham.
On Monday, a DHL cargo plane crashed on approach to an airport in Lithuania’s capital, killing a Spanish crew member. Lithuanian investigators have said one line of inquiry will be whether Russia played a role in the crash.
Mr Lerner agreed that the collective security of the whole of Europe is at stake in Ukraine, adding Britain’s experience tackling Russia in the wake of attacks such as the 2018 Salisbury Novichok poisoning of an ex-Russian spy, was invaluable to French intelligence.
The UK and France are among the Ukrainian allies most willing to allow Kyiv to use the weapons they supply, such as Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles, to hit targets inside Russia.
US President Joe Biden administration recently eased its long-held opposition to US-made missiles being used to strike Russia.
Kyiv said last week it had used American ATACM missiles to target Russia for the first time in the war.
Since then, Putin has lowered the official threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons and Moscow has pounded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with hundreds of missiles and drones. The Russian leader said that came in response to the firing of the American missiles on Russian soil.
Russia also fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile, called Oreshnik, and Putin threatened to use it against “decision-making centres” in Kyiv.
In a warning to allies wavering in support for Ukraine, Mr Moore warned “the cost of supporting Ukraine is well-known, but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher”.
Donald Trump has criticised the billions the Biden administration has spent supporting Ukraine and has said he could end the war in 24 hours. His comments appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory Russia now occupies.
Mr Moore said: “If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there. Our security — British, French, European and trans-Atlantic — will be jeopardised.”
He said if Russia wins, Iran and China, which so far support Moscow as “a transaction”, would draw even closer to Russia, adding: “If Putin succeeds, China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become yet more dangerous.”
Some European officials worry about what Trump’s “America first” agenda means for trans-Atlantic relations, but Mr Moore said he was confident the bond was strong.
He said: “For decades the US-UK intelligence alliance has made our societies safer. I worked successfully with the first Trump administration to advance our shared security and look forward to doing so again.”
