It has been revealed that Russian spies could be flying drones over UK military bases to gain information about Britain’s secret training programme for Ukrainian soldiers.
Russian intelligence has shown ‘significant’ interest in Operation Interflex, the British-led multinational plan to train and support Ukraine’s armed forces, according to a guide handed out to British soldiers.
The Field Army Threat Handbook, published late last year, warns that Russian intelligence services ‘routinely employ’ reconnaissance capabilities to ‘collect on UK land activities, including the training of armed forces personnel from Ukraine’.
The handbook claims this involves the use of ‘remotely piloted aircraft systems, mobile and foot surveillance, virtual and physical approaches to training providers and interest from investigative journalists’.
‘This government takes the security of our military establishments very seriously,’ a Ministry of Defence spokesperson told The Times.
‘There are a range of robust measures to protect our people and sites.’
Since July 2022, the Ministry of Defence and the Ukrainian military have collaborated to train recruits in urban warfare as part of Operation Interflex.
The Army stated in June of last year that it was on schedule to train 37,000 recruits, despite the need for combat-ready personnel to restock frontlines due to the ongoing war effort.
Interflex, the successor to Operational Orbital, is similar in function and is billed as a five-week course designed to turn ordinary Ukrainian citizens into highly skilled warriors.
However, British soldiers have been warned to be wary of possible Russian eavesdropping after the Kremlin threatened Britain over its material backing and warned Ukraine’s Western allies not to meddle.
According to The Times, the guidebook provided to soldiers states that agents have previously approached trainers to obtain details about the initiative.
It also warns of ‘vulnerable locations’, including training areas and key logistical sites.
In May, then-Home Secretary James Cleverly revealed plans to ‘target and dismantle Russian intelligence-gathering operations’ in what was seen as one of the most significant steps of its kind since the end of the Cold War.
Cleverly exposed Russian defence attaché Colonel Maxim Elovik as a senior spy and threatened to have him banished from the United Kingdom right away.
Additionally, he declared that some diplomatic locations that were thought to be spy bases would no longer have their unique legal status.
In tit-for-tat retaliation, Russia sent the British defence attaché packing.
In recent weeks, Putin has become more aggressive in response to the West’s apparent backing for Ukraine. He even went so far as to suggest that the Kremlin may reevaluate its nuclear weapons strategy in the event of perceived Western aggression.
Speaking after a pair of state visits to North Korea and Vietnam, the Russian President accused Kyiv’s Western partners of raising tensions even further by greenlighting the use of NATO weapons against targets on Russian soil.
Russian spies are watching us. Tell me something we are not aware of! Spying has been going on for hundreds of years, it’s hardly a surprise.
People are getting sick of all this propaganda. No one, with an IQ above 90 believes it anymore and that of course rules out the US who are brainwashed from birth.
Our UK government seemed to have involved itself in this war, so it’s hardly surprising that the Russians would respond in the same way, but there’s a simple question here, from a simple mind. We can stop a mobile phone signal, to prevent disturbance from them, but we don’t seem to have the ability to block a drone.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 