Ex-MI5 Chief Warns UK May Be at War

Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former director of MI5, warned on the Lord Speaker’s Corner podcast that Britain may already be at war with Russia, echoing foreign-policy expert Dr Fiona Hill. She described it as “a different sort of war” driven by cyberattacks, sabotage, intelligence collection, assassinations and other covert physical attacks, citing the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Security officials and analysts characterise these activities as intensified hybrid warfare since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, affecting NATO states as well as the UK. Commentators point to incidents such as suspected Russian drone activity, naval confrontations, and persistent attacks on British businesses and infrastructure. Westminster and the security services are increasingly alarmed and are revising Cold War–era contingency plans and preparing countermeasures, with experts urging these covert actions be treated as sustained state-on-state aggression even if not fought conventionally.