UK faces growing threat of Russian proxy attacks as defence chief warns Putin is escalating war
Britain’s defence chief has warned Russia is “shamelessly” targeting civilians and is likely to intensify attacks on Ukraine as winter approaches, as fears grow that Moscow will increasingly use criminal gangs and disposable proxies to strike targets in Britain without leaving an obvious Kremlin fingerprint.
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Speaking exclusively to LBC while on a trip to Kyiv, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said the threat posed by Russian ballistic missiles and drones remains one of Ukraine’s greatest concerns, particularly as colder weather approaches.
“Ukraine and President Zelensky are really clear that it's the threat from ballistic missiles and drones that really worry Ukraine,” Sir Richard told LBC.
“And as we get to winter, where they rely more heavily on electricity supplies and heating supplies, we've seen how Russia has been really shamelessly targeting civilian infrastructure to try and increase the pain on society.”
His warning comes amid growing concern in Britain that Russia’s campaign against the West is increasingly being fought away from the conventional battlefield, using proxies, criminals and recruits found online to conduct sabotage and other attacks while giving Moscow a degree of plausible deniability.
The threat was laid bare this week when former Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Fedorov suggested British factories involved in producing drones for Ukraine could be attacked by “unknown sources”.
Mr Fedorov said he could not “100% exclude” what he described as “semi-military” action against Britain, warning there could eventually be a “visible reaction from Russia towards the UK”.
Asked what that could mean, he suggested cyber attacks could come from an “unknown source” before going further.
“For example, something might happen with enterprises, with the factories which are producing drones for Ukraine,” he said.
Read more: Inside Russia’s growing army of ‘disposable’ civilian agents recruited on Telegram
Asked directly whether British factories on British soil could be attacked, he replied: “They could be attacked, not by Russia, but by… from unknown sources.”
It is precisely that type of deniable attack which British and Western security officials increasingly fear.
Rather than risk an overt military attack on a Nato country, Moscow can use criminals, mercenaries and so-called “one-time agents” to carry out individual acts of sabotage, intimidation or violence, making attribution more difficult and allowing the Kremlin to deny any involvement.
Former CIA director General David Petraeus has warned that Vladimir Putin could use gangs to launch terrorist-style attacks against Britain, telling The i Paper that Russia could turn to “gang members to carry out something that would not be as clearly attributable to the Russians”.
He said there should be an expectation of more Russian “grey-zone activities”, pointing to Moscow’s history of assassinations and covert operations.
MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum has previously made a similar warning, saying Russia is “turning to proxies for their dirty work, including private intelligence operatives and criminals”.
LBC has also reported how Russia is increasingly recruiting ordinary civilians to conduct attacks, intelligence gathering and sabotage, often through Telegram and frequently for relatively small amounts of money.
The tactic has become widespread inside Ukraine. Potential recruits can be approached online, given apparently simple tasks and paid without ever meeting a Russian intelligence officer. Some may be ideologically sympathetic to Moscow. Others simply want the cash.
A 69-year-old man from Kharkiv was recently accused of being recruited by Russian intelligence after being shown AI-generated material falsely portraying a Ukrainian commander as a Russian collaborator. His handler allegedly arranged for him to receive a pistol and attempt to assassinate the officer. The weapon failed to fire.
In March 2025, two teenagers in Ivano-Frankivsk were recruited through Telegram after being promised easy money and instructed to plant a bomb. One was killed and the other injured.
Ukraine’s Security Service said this month it had also uncovered a 14-person network gathering intelligence on Ukrainian military aviation. A man running an aviation Telegram channel in Lviv was allegedly recruited by Russian military intelligence before enlisting 13 of his followers to photograph airfields, aircraft and personnel and record take-off and landing times.
Former CIA officer Ed Bogan previously told LBC that Moscow deliberately casts its net far wider than Western intelligence agencies traditionally would.
“Russia exploits a wider range of vulnerabilities which have intersections across poverty, fear, resentment, addiction, online anonymity and the realities of a Ukrainian society under incredible stress,” he said.
“The Russians don't need every agent to be reliable or ideologically aligned, they may need just one data point from them, which gets layered into a broader mix. Or they need one act of vandalism, to exploit separately online.”
The concern for Britain is that the same model can be exported.
A person recruited to damage a factory, start a fire, photograph a military site or move a package does not need to be a trained Russian intelligence operative. They may not even fully understand who ultimately commissioned the job.
For Moscow, that makes such recruits cheap, plentiful and disposable. It also creates distance between the Kremlin and whatever happens next.
The warnings have taken on fresh significance following Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s visit to Kyiv, where Britain reiterated its support for Ukraine and agreed to declassify blueprints for British-made components of the Scalp missile, the French-produced version of the Storm Shadow cruise missile already used against targets in Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Britain of adding “fuel to the fire” of the conflict.
Mr Burnham responded: “Who started the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”
Britain and Ukraine also agreed a deal giving the Ministry of Defence and selected British companies access to Ukraine’s “Avengers” AI database, described by Downing Street as a “goldmine” of battlefield data.
The agreement is intended to allow British researchers and defence companies to learn directly from Ukraine’s experience of fighting Russia, including the rapid development and deployment of drones, artificial intelligence and battlefield sensors.
Sir Richard made clear that supporting Ukraine sits within a much wider question about Britain’s own security and the resources available to defend it.
“Defence is the highest priority going into the Spending Review,” he told LBC.
“It's a fundamental foundation stone on which all of our economic success and security are built.”
With Russia continuing its conventional bombardment of Ukraine while simultaneously developing cheaper and harder-to-attribute methods of operating across Europe, the distinction between the battlefield and the home front is becoming increasingly blurred.
For Britain, the immediate Russian threat is unlikely to look like tanks crossing a border or missiles being fired openly at UK territory.