UK intelligence chief accuses Russia of 'staggeringly reckless' sabotage campaign

The head of Britain's foreign intelligence service, MI6, has said Russia is conducting a "staggeringly reckless" sabotage campaign against Ukraine's Western allies — and that his agents are working to stop it from spiralling out of control.

In a speech to diplomats and intelligence officials in France, Richard Moore said his agency and its French counterpart, the DGSE, are cooperating to prevent a dangerous escalation, explaining that they are "calibrating the risk and informing the decisions of our respective governments" in response to what he described as a "mix of bluster and aggression".

"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," Moore told his audience.

"Such activity and rhetoric is dangerous and beyond irresponsible."

Moore was speaking alongside DGSE chief Nicolas Lerner at an event marking 120 years of the Entente Cordiale, a pact between Britain and France that bound the age-old rivals together as military and diplomatic allies.

Western security officials suspect that Russian intelligence is trying to destabilise Ukraine's allies with an array of disruptive tactics, among them disinformation, sabotage and arson.

Moscow has been linked by Western governments to a number of nefarious plans and attacks, including an alleged plot to burn down Ukrainian-owned businesses in London, and to incendiary devices found in packages on cargo planes. In July, one caught fire at a courier hub in Germany, while another ignited in an English warehouse.

Lerner agreed with Moore that "the collective security of the whole of Europe is at stake" in Ukraine.

He said the UK's