Britain has neither defeated nor isolated the country and is planning a new provocation, Moscow’s intelligence service has said
Britain is “furious” over its failure to achieve Russia’s “strategic defeat” and is preparing a new “provocation” in response to Moscow’s battlefield gains in Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has warned.
In a statement on Monday, the SVR claimed that a group of Russian nationals fighting for Ukraine has arrived in the UK for sabotage training. According to the agency, the group is meant to attack either a Ukrainian navy ship or a foreign civilian vessel in a European port, after which London would accuse Moscow of orchestrating the attack.
The service also noted that the group would receive Chinese-made underwater equipment, which would later be presented as “proof” of Beijing’s support for Russia.
London expects Europe’s “Russophobic” elites to use the “fake” narrative to justify further military aid to Ukraine and greater militarization against Russia, the spy agency suggested.
The Russian leadership considers the UK one of the most hostile Western states; relations between the two countries have only worsened since the escalation of Kiev’s conflict with Moscow in 2022.
London has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions targeting Russian banks, energy exports, and individuals, while expanding military aid to include long-range Storm Shadow missiles and training for Ukrainian forces.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last month accused NATO and EU countries of declaring a “real war” on Russia and directly participating in the Ukraine conflict. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has fired back, dismissing Lavrov’s statement as “false fantasy world distortions.”
Moscow expelled two British diplomats in March, accusing them of espionage and “subversive activities,” a move that London subsequently denounced as baseless. The UK responded by revoking the accreditation of a Russian diplomat and accusing the Kremlin of deliberately trying to force the closure of the British embassy in Moscow.
The UK discouraged early peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev in 2022, according to David Arakhamia, head of Vladimir Zelensky’s parliamentary bloc and former chief negotiator, who said then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Kiev to abandon the talks, a claim Johnson has denied.
