Andy Burnham has been accused of ignoring the growing danger Russia could pose to Britain, with critics claiming he is “burying his head in the sand”.
Lord Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, said the Government was failing to move quickly enough and needed to do far more to strengthen the UK’s defences.
His warning came as concerns over Britain’s readiness for a potential conflict intensified on Thursday, when households were advised to keep enough food and water to last for three days.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the advice was intended to help the public prepare for a range of emergencies, including wildfires, flooding and cyberattacks.
However, the preparedness campaign follows warnings from senior Nato military figures that Russia may be planning sabotage operations which could unintentionally escalate into a wider conflict.
Despite the mounting alarm, the Prime Minister has yet to confirm whether defence spending will rise to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030, matching commitments made by several other Nato members.
“The bottom line is that we are very exposed, but His Majesty’s Government has its collective head firmly in the sand,” Lord Dannatt told the Daily Mail, urging Downing Street to take immediate action.
As the debate over national security grows, experts have set out a range of ways Vladimir Putin’s regime could seek to exploit Britain’s “brittle” defences. The scenarios include nuclear weapons, submarines capable of causing radioactive waves and drone swarms able to monitor sensitive military locations.
Senior Western officials have also warned that the Russian leader is believed to be considering sabotage operations across Europe in an effort to undermine support for Ukraine.
The Kremlin is suspected of involvement in covert incidents at several locations in European Nato countries, including a London warehouse, an Estonian weapons plant and a railway in Poland.
Defence sources have suggested that Moscow could attempt to use its extensive “shadow fleet” of sanctioned oil tankers as offshore launch sites for drone attacks aimed at the UK.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured on Thursday, is believed to be targeting the UK
Officials said unmanned air and sea craft could be positioned near Britain’s coastline and directed at power stations, North Sea oil platforms or military facilities. Such carefully limited strikes could be designed to remain below the threshold that would provoke an all-out war.
One aircraft reportedly considered for these missions is the Gerbera drone.
The CIA reportedly claimed last month that Russia was considering launching similar drones from commercial vessels in the Mediterranean, potentially targeting Italy, Spain or France.
The drones have a wingspan of around 2.5 metres, allowing them to be concealed inside cargo containers and launched using a catapult. Once airborne, they can reportedly travel approximately 370 miles.
Although their warheads are relatively small, the aircraft could allegedly be used to ignite fires, damage vulnerable infrastructure such as electricity transformers or disrupt major airports including Gatwick and Heathrow.
Security experts have also raised concerns that Russia’s jet-powered Geran-3, Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones could be launched from larger shadow-fleet tankers operating in the North Sea, the Channel or the Atlantic.
Versions of these weapons have already been used in attacks on cities across Ukraine.
Other equipment reportedly being assessed for similar operations includes autonomous underwater vehicles and basic quadcopters, which could be deployed to collect intelligence on British military bases.
Mr Putin has already been accused of launching drones from his fleet of sanctioned oil tankers to spy on nuclear weapons in Britain, intelligence experts claimed earlier this year.
Russia’s newest long-range attack drone, the Garpiya-A1(E) (pictured) has a 620-mile range
The aircraft ‘exploited numerous gaps’ in air defences during a ‘sustained’ 15-month campaign by Moscow, according to a report published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Among the military establishments targeted was RAF Lakenheath, a US base in Suffolk that is preparing to host nuclear bombs. Its airspace was breached in November 2024 alongside three other US sites in England, sparking alarm.
The sightings at the time were dismissed by Western officials. However, analysis by IISS has since blamed a sanctioned Russian tanker docked in Hull for launching the drones.
Bases across Europe were also spied on, which included a secret submarine HQ at Île Longue in Brittany, northern France, which houses the bulk of the country’s nuclear missiles and air bases containing nuclear bombs in Belgium and the Netherlands.
‘We are vulnerable and we’re currently under Russian attack and it’s only going to get worse,’ Colonel Philip Ingram, a former officer in British military intelligence, warned.
‘Putin sees us as weak militarily and that we cannot threaten them in any shape or form, so he is increasing the attacks in the grey zone.’
Moscow has also been testing its new nuclear-powered ‘doomsday’ submarine which could soon be ready for action.
The Kremlin sent the Khabarovsk attack boat off for sea trials in the White Sea with no fanfare over the summer.
The Daily Mail understands Nato is aware of the boat and has been tracking its recent set of tests.
The 10,000-ton submarine has been designed to carry up to six Poseidon nuclear torpedoes on top of its ordinary anti-ship and land-attack missiles.
In theory, analysts say, an underwater blast created by Poseidon could drive a massive radioactive surge inland, sending huge tsunami waves that could devastate cities.
However, the boat has faced years of development hell and experts say the nuclear attack submarine is nowhere near being ready for operations. And experts have dismissed it as Kremlin propaganda designed to distract the West.
The Khabarovsk submarine (pictured) is said to have cost £1billion
Senior Western officials have also dismissed claims Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons against Europe despite sabre-rattling from the Kremlin in recent months.
But they have warned that Mr Putin’s thirst to launch a sabotage campaign in Europe risks a ‘miscalculation’ that could accidentally trigger a confrontation with Nato.
‘The appetite of Russia to conduct… sub-threshold or hybrid operations against Nato countries, whether this is sabotage or cyber, is very clear. President Putin absolutely wants to avoid a direct confrontation with Nato. However, in all of this, there is the risk of miscalculation,’ one official said.
Mr Putin is also believed to be using his fleet of submarines and spy ships to map Britain’s network of critical undersea data cables.
The lines, which crisscross the ocean floor, carry about 95 per cent of global telecommunications data and the UK is almost entirely reliant on them to provide internet connection to the outside world.
However, Britain only has one dedicated ship able to repair the deep-sea telecoms cables.
A Russian attack on the network would likely cripple the UK, disrupting banks, hospitals and transport networks and throwing the economy into chaos.
Nato has insisted it remains focused on tracking the movement of Mr Putin’s subs, warships and his decrepit fleet of more than 700 ageing tankers responsible for carrying 75 per cent of Russia’s sanctioned oil.
The focus of the alliance’s response to the Russian fleet comes from its Allied Maritime Command (Marcom) based at Northwood headquarters outside of London.
‘The UK should take comfort in the fact we are watching this 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,’ a Nato official told the Mail.
Recently members of the alliance, including the UK, have sought to put a stranglehold on the shadow fleet. Royal Marines stormed one vessel, the Smytros, in June, seizing it. Similar actions have been carried out by the US, France and Sweden.
The crackdown has forced Mr Putin to order his naval fleet, diminished through losses to Ukraine, to bodyguard his clandestine shadow fleet through the Channel and Baltics.
The actions have meant Russia has been able to send a single warship to the Mediterranean for months for the first time in a decade.
Royal Marines are pictured in June storming the Russian shadow fleet tanker Smytros
Russian warship the Admiral Grigorovich (front) is tracked by the UK’s RFA Tideforce (rear) in the Channel
Commander Tim Pietrack, a Nato spokesman, insisted such operations were helping to cripple Russia’s ability to operate at sea.
‘These escorting activities take up valuable days at sea for the Russian navy, and it places strain on their ability to generate naval forces for other missions,’ he said.
He added: ‘There’s no area around the Euro-Atlantic region where the Russian navy operates that Allies are not closely monitoring their activities.’
Elsewhere, analysts fear the Kremlin could expand its espionage operation further, potentially recruiting British gangsters to carry out sabotage attacks against UK defence firms.
Russia has already been accused of recruiting criminals to carry out attacks in Britain.
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Earlier this year, a gang who firebombed Sir Keir Starmer’s home in a suspected Russian plot were jailed for a total of nine years today.
Two Ukrainian men were hired as ‘pawns’ by a mystery Russian figure to target the former prime minister setting fire to his family home, his former car and another property he was linked to in a plot which has since been linked to a Russian diplomat.
Lured by the promise of making £3,000 in ‘easy money’, Roman Lavrynovych, 21 and Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, set fire to Sir Keir’s constituency home where his sister-in-law was staying and a flat in Islington which he had previously been linked to in the early hours of May 12 and May 11.
While last year, six Britons acting for Russia’s Wagner group were jailed for setting fire to a warehouse storing humanitarian aid for Ukraine in Leyton, east London.
Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych (left) and Romanian Stanislav Carpiuc (right) were convicted of conspiracy to damage property by fire
A Toyota Rav4 which was once owned by Sir Keir was set alight in Kentish Town last May
The actions are feared to be part of a concerted ‘grey zone’ campaign by the Kremlin to undermine British security and test its responses.
Lord Dannatt insisted the National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ, needed ‘further resources to combat hackers’ to defend the UK.
He also called for further support to be given to police and MI5 to ‘thwart or investigate potential sabotage and direct-action attacks’ on British defence firms.
And he demanded more sub-surface and aerial surveillance technology for the Navy and RAF to ‘deter Russian interference’ with the nation’s critical undersea communications cable and energy pipelines.
‘We are increasingly familiar with the range of grey zone threats, some of which can be shrugged off as criminal activity but increasingly we should now realise these are malign state actors moving against us, particularly Russia,’ Lord Dannatt told the Mail.
‘But much more worrying is a near-lack of ballistic missile defence capability.’
Britain’s only defence to a ballistic missile attack is its fleet of six Type 45 destroyers. However, not every one of the £1billion warships would be available in the event of an attack, with the majority undergoing either long-term refit or maintenance programmes.
Russia has one of the largest submarine fleets in the world. Armed with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, they are capable of striking Britain from the Barents Sea, Arctic and North Atlantic.
Britain’s only defence to a ballistic missile attack is its fleet of six Type 45 destroyers (HMS Dragon, pictured)
Lord Dannatt (pictured) said the Government needs to do more to improve Britain’s defences
The Conservatives have pledged to invest £10billion in a system to defend the UK against such long-range attacks, should they win the next general election.
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said the party’s ‘Britannia Shield’ would offer an integrated network of interceptor missiles, radar arrays and command and control systems.
Meanwhile, Labour has pledged to invest £790million over the next four years on improving the country’s integrated air and missile defences.
Concerns over Russia deepened on Wednesday after it emerged Moscow was employing fishing boats to hunt for subsea cables.
Civilian vessels attempting to carry out espionage for Mr Putin in waters around the UK are already being tracked by Nato, according to The Telegraph.
The outlet analysed more than 500 cases of Russian trawlers loitering above vital communication lines linking the UK with Europe and the US.
Others have been seen following cable routes at slow speeds for miles through the ocean, raising suspicions vessels were pinpointing the exact locations of the lines.
A Nato source told the paper: ‘We’re absolutely aware of what Russian civilian fishing ships are up to and where… Some of these ships have never seen a single fish on their deck.’
Ministers have confirmed that Russia is using ‘commercial proxies’ to threaten vital undersea infrastructure.
Andy Burnham is being called to increase military spending to tackle the threat of Russia
It comes amid increasing threats from Russia in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Earlier this year, it was revealed a covert Russian operation to sabotage cables on the Arctic seabed had been disrupted by British, American and Norwegian forces.
The latest revelation suggests Moscow has already been carrying out subterfuge on an unprecedented scale at sea, raising fresh questions about the Royal Navy’s ability to react.
The Navy has shrunk to its smallest size in living memory. It has five active frigates, six destroyers and two aircraft carriers, alongside a submarine fleet of six Astute-class attack boats and four Vanguard-class subs, which carry Britain’s nuclear weapons.
Both the aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth, have been plagued by technical gremlins and reported mechanical problems since their maiden voyages.
In March, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord, admitted the Senior Service was not ready for war. The naval chief is pinning his hopes on creating a new ‘hybrid navy’ of drone vessels and traditional warships which could bolster the fleet’s ability.
At the same time, the British Army has shrunk to its smallest number in more than 200 years, with about 71,000 full-time, fully-trained troops ready to deploy to the front line.
Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said: ‘Our biggest problem is we’re in the wrong place in terms of our ability to sustain operations. We’re brittle.
‘We have things that are good but frankly we don’t have enough of them… [the] Astute submarines are a good piece of equipment but we only have a small number and only one operation. That’s a problem.
‘The RAF has the F-35 [stealth jets] and they’re very good but we simply don’t have enough of them
‘If the Royal Navy was to deploy a carrier strike group now by itself that would be the totality of the Navy. And the Army can’t deploy at the full strength that it has to.’
He continued: ‘The biggest challenge from the armed forces’ perspective is we’re upgrading capability but in a number of areas we are years behind where we want to be.’
Colonel Ingram feared the current state of Britain’s military meant it posed little threat to Russia.
Russia has a large stockpile of ballistic missiles that could be used to target the UK
‘The UK is woefully short in its defensive capability. We have nothing between be able to deal with a small skirmish – which is all our armed forces can do right now – to then having to go to full intercontinental nuclear missiles, starting World War 3,’ he added.
The concerns came after a damning report this week warned Britain and her allies are leaving the Arctic for the taking by Mr Putin.
MPs found critical shortages of Royal Navy warships could allow Russia to plunder the High North for its energy resources and to control shipping routes.
The study by the Defence Select Committee comes after the UK’s only ice patrol ship HMS Protector broke down.
While earlier this week the Mail revealed how a further eight crewed warships, including minehunters and offshore patrol vessels, are expected to be withdrawn over the next five years.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is building up its naval assets in the region where melting ice caps are hotting up the competition for oil, gas and rare mineral resources that were previously beyond reach.
By 2040, the Arctic is expected to be ‘ice free’ during the summer months – a development expected to increase China’s military involvement.
Committee chairman Tan Dhesi said: ‘The High North poses a major strategic challenge for UK security.
‘Our greatest adversary, Russia, is seeking to dominate this demanding, hostile environment for its military advantage. The UK needs to address a hard truth: it does not have all the capabilities to operate successfully in the High North.
‘Russian submarine and sabotage forces pose direct risks to the North Atlantic and the UK, including the nuclear deterrent. Despite this the Ministry of Defence has accepted a serious anti-submarine warfare gap.
‘Publicly available evidence of low availability among destroyers, frigates and attack submarines calls into question whether the UK can meet its commitments to the High North.’
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it is investing £330million over four years to strengthen protection of critical underwater infrastructure.
An MoD spokesman added: ‘The suggestion that Britain is not taking the Russian threat seriously is simply wrong. We are clear-eyed about the threat Russia poses in and around the UK and are unflinching in defending our people and our allies.
‘That’s why we are delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, committing nearly £300bn over the next four years, ensuring our Armed Forces can tackle future threats wherever they emerge.
‘This includes £790m to strengthen protection from air, drone and missile threats, £2bn into wider air defence and counter-drone capabilities and £2.5bn for cyber and the electromagnetic domain.’
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