29 September 2025 , 18:46
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The former head of MI5 has warned that we may be ’already at war with Russia’ as Vladimir Putin launched a brutal 12-hour bombardment of Kyiv.
Eliza Manningham-Buller said Moscow’s ’extensive’ deployment of cyber attacks, intelligence work, ’physical attacks’ and ’sabotage’ in Britain are tantamount to conflict.
The Baroness told the Lord Speaker’s Corner podcast – which is produced by the House of Lords – that Putin expert Fiona Hill ’may be right in saying we’re already at war with Russia’.
It came as the Met’s counter-terrorism chief, Commander Dominic Murphy, issued a warning over the rise in children being recruited by Russia to commit crimes.
He said there has been a ’five-fold increase’ in threats from foreign states since the 2018 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
He added that there have been ’tens’ of cases of young people recruited by hostile powers.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, Russia launched a 12-hour aerial strike on Kyiv which killed at least four people, including a 12-year-old girl.
It was one of the biggest strikes on the capital since the war began in February 2022.
The attack was so severe that the Polish air force was scrambled and the airspace around two cities near the border with Ukraine was closed temporarily.
Putin launched nearly 600 drones and more than 40 missiles across the country. Ukraine’s air force said it had detected 595 drones and 48 cruise or ballistic missiles during the attack.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky labelled the strikes as ’deliberate and targeted terror’.
He added: ’Moscow wants to continue to fight and kill and deserves only the harshest pressure in the world.’
Mr. Zelensky backed Donald Trump’s demand at the UN General Assembly for Europe to stop buying Russian oil, adding that ’anyone who wants peace’ should support the US President’s efforts.
It came as The Mail on Sunday reported that MI5 wants members of the public to train as undercover surveillance officers – with the only qualification needed being the ’ability to blend into the background’.
The role would include following terrorist suspects around Britain on foot or by car.
Applicants would first have to pass an arduous six-month training programme which one recruit described as ’physically and mentally exhausting’.
World Affairs Correspondent