European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
UK intelligence chief accuses Russia of ‘staggeringly reckless’ sabotage campaign
EURONEWS – Hybrid attacks on Ukraine’s Western allies appear to be proliferating, and several high-profile incidents have been blamed on the Kremlin.
The head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, has said Russia is conducting a “staggeringly reckless” sabotage campaign against Ukraine’s Western allies — and that his agents are working to stop it from spiralling out of control.
In a speech to diplomats and intelligence officials in France, Richard Moore said his agency and its French counterpart, the DGSE, are cooperating to prevent a dangerous escalation, explaining that they are “calibrating the risk and informing the decisions of our respective governments” in response to what he described as a “mix of bluster and aggression”.
“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,” Moore told his audience.
“Such activity and rhetoric is dangerous and beyond irresponsible.”
The UK and France are among Ukraine’s closest European allies, and have proven especially willing to allow Kyiv to use weapons they supply — especially France’s Scalp missile and the UK’s Storm Shadow system — to strike targets inside Russia.
The Biden administration has only recently eased its long-held opposition to US-made missiles being used to strike Russia.
Ukraine said last week it had used the American ATACMS missiles to target Russia for the first time in the war. Since then, Russia has pounded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with hundreds of missiles and drones, a barrage Putin has framed as a response to the firing of US-made missiles at Russian targets.
Russia also fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile called Oreshnik, which Putin has threatened to use against what he called “decision-making centres” in Kyiv.
In a warning to allies wavering in their support for Ukraine, Moore said that “the cost of supporting Ukraine is well-known, but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher.”
He said that if Russia wins, Iran, China and North Korea — which so far support Moscow as “a transaction” — would tighten their existing ties with the Kremlin.
“If Putin succeeds, China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become yet more dangerous,” Moore warned.
