The UK has exposed 18 Russian spies and their units responsible for cyber-attacks in Britain and hacking one of the victims of the Salisbury poisonings, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has said.
Announcing individual sanctions, Lammy said Russia had targeted media, telecoms providers, political and democratic institutions and energy infrastructure in the UK in recent years.
He also said two of the spies had been involved in planting X-Agent spyware on a device used by Yulia Skripal, the daughter of the former spy Sergei Skripal, five years before they were poisoned with novichok in Salisbury in 2018.
The Skripals survived the attack on British soil but a woman, Dawn Sturgess, was killed after her boyfriend stumbled across the poison in a perfume bottle.
X-Agent is believed to be linked to the hacking group Fancy Bear, which has ties to Russia’s GRU military intelligence unit 26165, which is being hit with sanctions.
The government said some of the agents from the unit were also involved in targeting the bombing of the Mariupol theatre in Ukraine, where hundreds of civilians, including children, were killed, and carrying out wider cyber-operations in support of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Lammy said the UK was exposing Russian spies and hackers to increase security.
“GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilise Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens,” he said.
“The Kremlin should be in no doubt. We see what they are trying to do in the shadows and we won’t tolerate it. That’s why we’re taking decisive action with sanctions against Russian spies.
“Putin’s hybrid threats and aggression will never break our resolve. The UK and our allies’ support for Ukraine and Europe’s security is ironclad.”
The names of the alleged spies were published online. Sanctions typically involve asset freezes and travel bans.
The government said it was also imposing sanctions on an entity called African Initiative that it said was responsible for printing disinformation about health in west Africa.
The decision to target spies with sanctions is an escalation of the UK’s strategy, which has previously focused more on politicians, financial institutions and military leaders.
The UK announced in May that further sanctions would target dozens of entities “supporting Russia’s military machine, energy exports and information war, as well as financial institutions helping to fund Putin’s invasion of Ukraine”.
The Foreign Office said at the time: “Putin has so far not put in place the full, unconditional ceasefire that President Trump has called for, and which President Zelenskyy endorsed over two months ago.”
The Foreign Office estimated in June that sanctions against Russia had deprived the Russian state of at least $450bn (£340bn) in war funds between February 2022 and June 2025.
Since taking office last year, Lammy has deployed a tough stance against Russia, saying the post-cold war era is “well and truly over” and arguing that keeping the British people safe means standing up against “Putin’s mafia state”.
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