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
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.
