Russia’s intelligence agency has been on a mission to generate “sustained mayhem on British and European streets,” the head of MI5 has said.
Giving his annual update on security threats faced by the UK, Ken McCallum said GRU agents had carried out “arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness” in Britain after the UK backed Ukraine in its war with Russia.
MI5 had also responded to 20 plots backed by Iran since 2022, he said, although he added the majority of its work still mostly involved Islamist extremism followed by extreme right-wing terrorism.
The complex mix of terror-related threats and threats from nation states meant MI5 had “one hell of a job on its hands”, he warned.
There was a “dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies” MI5 had to deal with, he told the briefing at MI5’s counter-terrorism operations centre in London.
“The first 20 years of my career here were crammed full of terrorist threats.
“We now face those alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war,” he said.
The UK’s “leading role” in supporting Ukraine means “we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin’s regime” and further acts of aggression on UK soil should be expected, he warned.
The UK’s current terror threat level is substantial – meaning an attack is likely. —BBC