“Conflict is at our door.” The sobering message from Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte echoed across Europe on Thursday as he told leaders to prepare for “the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured”.
The latest bang of the war drum has forced European ministers to increase military preparedness, and hold their nerve in the face of wavering US support for the region.
But Rutte’s speech from Berlin, and his warning that Nato allies are the “next target” for Russian President Vladimir Putin should come as no surprise. For years, Europe has been locked in an unconventional war with Putin.
Cyber attacks, criminal networks, and clandestine operations directed by the Kremlin have destabilised the continent’s critical services and sown discontent among the public.
Rutte’s comments came as the Royal Navy were forced to shadow a Russian submarine through the English Channel. The latest in a long line of Russian vessels threatening UK waters, suspected of gathering intelligence and mapping undersea cables.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has now revealed that hostile intelligence activity against the department rose more than 50 per cent in the past year.
Russia’s Hybrid warfare is stepping up.
Threats at sea
In a series of exclusive reports, The i Paper has revealed how the Kremlin has used conventional cargo ships to launch apparent drone incursions over European military bases, and transport alleged spies into the UK to visit military sites and crucial infrastructure.
Drones overflying military bases, defence production and research sites, and military assets have become a regular feature of Vladimir Putin’s aggression against the West. Since 2024, there have been at least 30 such incidents across 11 European countries.
Another threat makes regular visits near our coastline. The Russian “spy ship” – The Yantar – has been in a confrontation with British Naval forces after it was suspected of deploying underwater drones to survey subsea communication cables. In one incident, the ship used lasers to disrupt RAF pilots tracking its activity near UK waters.
Over the past two years there has been a 30 per cent increase in Moscow’s vessels operating in UK waters and the North Atlantic, according to the the MoD, which says Moscow’s use of the seabed has “increased opportunities” for sabotage of undersea critical national infrastructure.
Subsea cables in UK and surrounding waters (Phtoo: KIS-ORCA)The UK has some 45 cables connecting Britain to other countries that carry essential power supplies and vast quantities of data, including financial information. They provide an essential artery in and out of the country.
A report by the China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) found that out of 10 cases of undersea cable sabotage since 2021, eight were directly linked to China and Russia, showing the UK’s vulnerability at sea.
Putin’s proxies
Low level criminals working on the Kremlin’s orders have carried out sabotage attacks across the UK, setting fires to depots and businesses supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia. These local, often amateur, criminals often form part of proxy spy rings across the country and share sensitive information with Kremlin handlers.
Last year, US security officials said Russia’s intelligence agency, the GRU, was orchestrating a campaign of arson attacks targeting courier firms across Europe.
Russia, of course, denied everything.
A group of young British men have been found guilty of working for state-backed Russian mercenaries to start a fire at an industrial estate in Leyton, east London, in March 2024 (Photo: LFB)In the past year alone, at least ten separate incidents have set UK weapons plants, substations, factories, and properties linked to the Prime Minister ablaze. Officially, many remain unexplained—but UK intelligence sources suspect the Kremlin’s hand in all of them, The i Paper understands.
The UK National Security Act, introduced in 2023, has sought to make Britain a tougher environment for Russian intelligence to penetrate. Over the past year there have been a number of convictions, including six Bulgarian nationals who were sentenced in May 2025 to a combined total of over 50 years for conducting “espionage on an industrial scale” for the Russian state.
The cyber war
Last year, the UK awoke to the cyber threat faced by hostile states after ransomware crippled NHS systems, and plunged hospitals into crisis. Internal messages from the hackers, seen by The i Paper, revealed that a Kremlin-protected cyber gang was behind the assault—a chilling escalation in Russia’s hybrid warfare.
The UK’s vulnerability to cyber attacks has been realised. Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Harrods, and Jaguar Land Rover have all experienced attacks which have debilitated business, hit profit margins, and destroyed public trust.
In the wake of the attacks Chancellor Rachel Reaves insisted the threat facing UK businesses was “coming from hostile states, states like Russia,” and claimed “a number of these attacks originate in Russia by Russian-backed entities”.
NHS trusts have been hit by ransomware attacks by cyber criminal networks (Photo: PA)Russia has long denied any involvement in cyber attacks on UK businesses and public services. UK intelligence sources are not convinced, and have grown concerned about Moscow’s appetite for risk in cyber operations to achieve its wider aims and ambitions.
Officials were briefed as far back as 2018 that nation states, such as Russia, were launching sustained and continuous cyber attacks on the UK, and there was a level of acceptance that Britain would be successfully attacked, according to a former UK military intelligence official.
“We were always looking to be able to recognise that we had to take a proverbial cyber punch,” he said. “We’re not going to be immune. We’re not going to avoid it. We’re going to get one at some point. How quickly can we recover? How quickly can we restore services?”
Russian information warfare
This week, the Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper accused Russia of waging “information warfare” as she sanctioned several members of a “malign influence network” under the Kremlin’s control.
She announced sanctions on media outlets and fronts for Russian intelligence agencies which Cooper said were involved “Kremlin manipulation tactics” using fake news articles to spread disinformation across Europe.
“We should call out this for what it is,” Cooper said. “Russian information warfare, and we are defending ourselves.”
Her comments came after an FBI dossier, seen by The i Paper, revealed the inner workings of the Kremlin’s ‘Doppleganger’ operation, the spread of Russian propoganda using fake newspaper domains and lookalike Facebook accounts of media outlets – including the Daily Mail and the BBC.
Misinformation has been perfected by Russia over decades, and remains a key component in Putin’s hybrid warfare.
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