Ministers must be honest about Russian threat to UK, says former Foreign Office head

Britain’s former national security adviser has warned that ministers must be honest with the public about the immediate threat posed by Russia, which could soon lead to lives being lost. Peter Ricketts, who advised David Cameron as prime minister, said the government should start a conversation about what may be coming.

Hybrid attacks growing more reckless

Ricketts, a peer and former top civil servant in the Foreign Office, highlighted the danger from “hybrid attacks” by Vladimir Putin’s forces. He said these could target banking systems, energy or water supplies through cyber-assaults. And he called for more investment in resilience for key sectors, including transport, air traffic control and defence. “They all need better protection, and that’s an argument that needs to be had with the British people because we need to find the money to do it,” he said.

But Ricketts stressed he was not predicting an industrial war with tanks rolling across the north German plain. Yet he warned that the attacks are getting more dangerous. “But these hybrid attacks are getting more reckless, more dangerous. One day, people are going to land up being killed somewhere, and so we are going to have to look at responding in that sense and finding the money to do it,” he said.

His comments follow warnings from MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum and chief of general staff Gen Sir Roly Walker in recent days. McCallum said MI5 was devoting more resources to combating threats from hostile states than during the cold war, describing Russia as the “number one aggressor”. Walker told troops at Catterick garrison that politicians would soon need a “frank conversation” about sacrifices needed to prioritise defence and security.

Ricketts also dismissed Andy Burnham’s claim that he wanted to be a “bridge” between the US and Ukraine. “I don’t really go on this bridge business. I mean, I don’t think in Trump’s current mood there’s any influence that Britain can have in the short term,” he said. This comes as US-Ukraine relations have deteriorated sharply after Donald Trump waived economic sanctions on Russia and suggested Ukraine needed a new leader.