UK Accused by Russian Intelligence of Masterminding a Sabotage Campaign Against Russian Shadow Fleet

IMAGE: Nordic Warden ~ JEF activates UK-led reaction system to track threats to undersea infrastructure and monitor Russian shadow fleet 

Although the 21st-century Wire has thoroughly examined the sabotage of the North Stream pipeline, we are still in the process of investigating this unprecedented act of terrorism carried out in the “NATO Lake” (Baltic Sea) on September 26, 2022, and will soon publish our next report.  Meanwhile,  it would seem wise to pay attention to a significant statement released yesterday by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), which warns about a plot by British intelligence Services to utilise NATO allies for a large-scale operation against Russia’s so-called ‘Shadow Fleet.’ According to SVR, the proposed plan entails a substantial act of sabotage, the repercussions of which would allow the UK and its NATO allies to declare that the transportation of Russian oil poses a threat to global shipping, hence enabling the West to adopt various countermeasures. In the worst-case scenario, this could lead to the detention of any ‘suspicious’ vessels in international waters, which would ultimately be escorted to NATO ports. In its statement,  the SVR emphasises two potential scenarios that the British are currently developing as part of their operational plan.

The first involves orchestrating an incident with an ‘unwanted tanker’ in a narrow maritime passage (such as a strait). An oil spill and the obstruction of the shipping lane, as London anticipates, would provide NATO nations with ‘adequate’ justification to establish a precedent for an ‘extraordinary inspection’ of a vessel, ostensibly to ensure compliance with maritime safety regulations and environmental standards.

The second scenario considers putting a tanker on fire while it is being loaded at a port in a nation allied with Russia. It is expected that the resulting explosion would inflict considerable damage on the port’s infrastructure and potentially spread to other vessels, necessitating an international inquiry.

STATEMENT: Press Bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia, August 4 (Source: SVR)
SVR Statement

The SVR suggest that the British Intelligence Services would use the Ukrainian special forces for carrying out the sabotage, pointing to their “predictable operational footprint” as a strategy for Britain to shift blame. Russian officials compared the supposed scheme to the Nord Stream pipeline incident, indicating that the consequences would either point to Russia or Ukraine, while shielding Western entities from any responsibility.

In a statement made on May 9, 2025, ahead of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) meeting, which was held in Oslo, Norway, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasised that the UK was moving forward with new sanctions targeting as many as 100 vessels implicated in the transportation of Russian oil, despite existing international sanctions, whilst openly making threats to Russia so-called “Shadow Fleet” operation. Starmer remarked:

“The threat from Russia to our national security cannot be underestimated,” Starmer said Friday. “That is why we will do everything in our power to destroy his shadow fleet operation, starve his war machine of oil revenues and protect the subsea infrastructure that we rely on for our everyday lives.” (Source POLITICO)

IMAGE: British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (left) meets Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on the Norwegian coastguard vessel Jan Mayen in Oslo, Norway, during the  Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) meeting in May 2025 (Source: Alistair Grant/PA) (PA Wire)

Since January 2025, the Russian shadow fleet has been monitored by the Joint Expeditionary Force’s advanced UK-led reaction system, known as Nordic Warden,  The system is part of NATO’s effort to track Russian “Shadow Fleet” vessels in Northern European water, which operations fall under the command of Major General Tom Bateman, the commander of UK Standing Joint Force Headquarters (SJFHQ). According to a post on X from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Britain’s strategy includes a significant act of sabotage aimed at compelling Washington to impose sanctions on purchasers of Russian energy.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service:

UK intelligence agencies plan to involve NATO allies to launch a massive raid on the ‘shadow fleet’.

This plan provides for a major act of sabotage to force Washington into sanctioning buyers of Russian energy.https://t.co/HZl33A0M7j pic.twitter.com/l88p5kM7xP

— MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) August 4, 2025

In September 2024, Russia’s FSB security service withdrew the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow, due to evidence of their involvement in espionage and sabotage activities. The FSB charged the British diplomats with attempting to heighten the political and military tensions in Russia, allegedly coordinating their efforts from London. The Russian Federation has declared on multiple occasions this year that the United Kingdom is their number one enemy, even before the US, who, in a recent statement by US Commanding General Christopher T. Donahue, Commander of Allied Land Command, NATO, shockingly explained during a conference in Germany, how NATO has developed a plan to ‘neutralize Kalilingrad A2AD bubbles from NATO ground postitions on both side of the 47 km “kill box” stretch,  to defeat Russian reinforced presence. This reflects a common error made by someone who is using prepackaged formula from the US military-industrial complex, confusing simulations with actual strategy, whilst believing that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can easily replace the complexities of the historical geography, geopolitics and the harsh realities of war.

VIDEO: Extract from LANDEURO Germany Day 1. Conference with Speaker Christopher Donahue (Source: Courtesy Video from U.S. Army Europe and Africa)

.
Today, there is enough evidence that demonstrates how Britain has consistently supported Ukraine’s military efforts and has promoted direct confrontation with Russia, significantly contributing to NATO’s troop deployments and training activities near Russia’s borders. Following the onset of the war, Britain dispatched billions in arms, special forces, and volunteers to facilitate further escalation. Therefore, the assessment by Russian intelligence regarding the genuine threat that Britain poses to their national security, and regional stability should not be unexpected; rather, it should be viewed as a continuation of the UK’s escalatory strategy in the Ukraine conflict…

In the Western imperialist alliance, it is Britain, in fact, to a greater extent than the United States, that has played a very special leading role in the alliance’s war against Russia, with Ukraine as its battlefield. It was the British Ministry of Defence that created the Integrity Initiative (with ramifications to Norway, see here and here ), the British and their Chatham House, with its roots in colonial times, played a leading role during the Maidan coup in 2014, and the British are world leaders in online psychological warfare. The  77th Brigade uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as podcasts, data analysis and public opinion polling to carry out what the head of the British military,  General Nick Carter,  describes as  “information warfare”. TJ Coles sheds more light on Britain’s role in the war against Russia in this article. (Pål Steigan, editor-in-chief at Steigan.no)

In this context, it can be beneficial to revisit articles published in the initial six months of the Ukraine-Russia conflict to fully understand the insights and cautions that were present during that period. Today, we are highlighting an article published on August 12, 2022, by “The Grayzone,” and written by TJ Coles, a postdoctoral researcher at Plymouth University’s Cognition Institute and the author of multiple books. This piece perfectly captures Britain’s perilous strategy, which is undoubtedly bringing us closer to a nuclear confrontation with each passing day…

IMAGE: UK Chief of the General Staff General Patrick Sanders visited Ukrainian soldiers training in the UK, July 2022. (Source: MOD)

TJ Coles reports for The Grayzone…

Britain has played a key role in NATO forward troop deployments and training exercises on Russia’s borders. With war underway, the UK sends billions in arms, special forces, and volunteers to ensure escalation.

In an effort to evade his domestic woes, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson—who may soon be replaced—has spent much time toing and froing to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the buffoonish British PM as one of Ukraine’s closest allies. If and when Johnson leaves office, he is tipped for a role as Ukraine Envoy.

The Johnson-Zelenskyy relationship contrasts sharply with Zelenskyy’s experiences with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has warned the European Union (EU) and the US not to “humiliate” Russian President Putin and instead to seek diplomatic over military solutions to the conflict.

But Johnson’s pastiche of Churchillian resolve has deeper roots in the Anglo-American alliance when it comes to Ukraine, and is heavily informed by Britain’s membership of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). His impulses are also dictated by Britain’s post-World War Two-era role in the global order: to serve the interests of the US state. From 2015 to this year, the UK has trained over 22,000 Ukrainian military personnel as part of the Maritime Training Initiative and Operation Orbital.

The UK pushes Ukraine as a gateway to NATO

In my book Britain’s Secret Wars, I documented how the UK spent years training the Ukrainian military, long before the 2014 coup, and even when the Ukrainian military was under the command of Russian-oriented governments.

“We believe that Ukraine, as a European country, should have the right, under existing treaties, to join the EU once it has fulfilled the criteria for accession.” These are the words spoken in 2011 by Leigh Turner, Ambassador to Austria and the UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Turner went on to say: “I’ve actually spent several chunks of my career in and around Central and Eastern Europe, starting off with a year in 1980 as a civil servant at the headquarters of the British Northern Army Group in Rheindahlen in Germany.”

Turner continued: “We always used to joke nervously that this would be the target of the first Soviet tactical nuclear missile to launch hostilities in Europe.” Nothing quite puts you in the mood for political work like a few wisecracks about the apocalypse. Turner said that the UK should continue to focus on Ukraine as a weapon against Russia: “Ukraine could have a big demonstration effect in the region.  Indeed, there is an argument that a successful Ukraine could be a swing-state for the whole of the FSU [former Soviet Union].”

“Conversely, if Ukraine fails, it would be easy for unelected or undemocratic leaders in the region to claim that ‘western’ style governance has no place around here.” Turner and his colleagues hoped that they could nudge Yanukovych in the pro-Western direction. “Before the election of President Yanukovych, he was often depicted as being ‘pro-Russian’.  This is too simple,” Turner explained before laying out the economic “reforms” being undertaken.

To quicken the process, Turner saw the UK’s role as Ukraine’s gateway to NATO: to establish Ukraine as a NATO proxy but without giving it the benefits and collective protection guarantees of NATO members. As he said, “There’s a lot the UK can continue to do to work closely with Ukraine to help its armed forces to reform and to make them more capable of integrating into, and working with, NATO forces.”

British proposals included appointing a special Defense Adviser, providing language training, and naval integration. Turner’s follow-up statement, also in 2011, noted that 17 staff and students from the UK Royal College of Defence Studies visited Ukraine, while 20 personnel from the Ukrainian National Defense University came to Britain. As part of so-called Partnership for Peace programmes, British paratroopers trained their Ukrainian counterparts.

But according to John Kampfner, this was not enough. “When Russia invaded Donbas and annexed Ukraine in 2014, the UK was happy to fall in behind efforts by France and Germany to negotiate a settlement with Moscow and Kyiv under the Normandy Format, which ultimately failed,” writes the journalist and author, who neglects to mention why the negotiations failed. Kampfner is now Executive Director of the UK in the World Programme: a project of the Royal Institute for International Affairs think tank that seeks to formulate Britain’s neocolonial doctrines.

A House of Commons research briefing states that, at the time, the EU’s major powers, France and Germany, opposed sending military equipment to Ukraine. This was in contrast to the US position under US President Barack Obama. Britain bolstered the US position while compromising with its European neighbors by sending so-called non-lethal equipment.

“Win-wins for NATO”

In 2015, Britain established Operation Orbital to train Ukrainian forces. From 2017 to 2020, various branches of the government, including the Foreign Office and Department for International Development (which later merged), spent over £30 million of taxpayers’ money on the so-called Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). In addition to Orbital, the funds contributed to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

The House of Commons research briefing says that a year later, Ukraine and Britain signed a Memorandum of Understanding to continue military training and arms exports. “In 2018 training teams consisting of Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel were deployed to deliver training to the Ukrainian Navy.” In late-2020, it was reported that 100 soldiers from the 3rd Rifles and 4th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland (4 Scots) “are in Ukraine providing training to Ukrainian Force.”

In 2021, the UK pledged £1.7bn in financing to support the Ukrainian Naval Capabilities Enhancement Programme. In June of that year, the military contractor Babcock signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding with the UK and Ukrainian governments to regenerate Ukraine’s naval ports. “Babcock will be supported by several other companies with a strong UK presence, including MBDA, Thales, and Royal Haskoning DHV.”

In August 2021, Soldier magazine reported that British forces had “been training with their Ukrainian counterparts as part of a multinational package that also involved Canadian, US and Swedish personnel.” The 400 person battle group mainly consisted of personnel from 4 Scots who were deployed to Ukraine “with the aim of developing mutual relations, joint planning and battalion and tactical operations.” The report notes how personnel practiced live-fire drills with Ukraine’s 54th Mechanized Brigade, “which has completed multiple tours in the volatile Donbas region.”

Commenting on Exercise Cossack Mace, Lt. Col. Alasdair Hempenstall of 4 Scots said of his men: “They have learnt how the Ukrainians operate from a military perspective, as well as experiencing a taste of their culture and heritage.”

A British Army Review publication from summer 2021 states: “Ukraine and Estonia have evolved more from support to (UK) Operations ORBITAL and CABRIT”, the UK deployment to Estonia as part of NATO’s Forward Presence. “These are also win-wins for NATO, which is coming neatly into alignment.”

Lt. Col. Glen Grant (ret.) is a Riga (Latvia)-based British military advisor in Ukraine and graduate of various institutions, including the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. A Northern Ireland war veteran (i.e., counterinsurgency specialist) and military-intelligence operative in 1990s’ Bosnia and Iraq, Grant has advised most of the militaries of Eastern Europe/the Baltic and Balkans regions.

Consider the background: In the 2010s, the US Agency for International Development – the State Department’s privatization and astroturf wing – helped Ukraine’s so-called Democratic Alliance; one of many groups pushing for pro-Western “reforms” and an entity prominent in the Euromaidan protests that escalated into the 2013-14 coup. One prominent Democratic Alliance leader was politician and advisor Victor Andrusiv, who went on to lead an entity called the Ukrainian Institute for the Future (UIF), founded by figures like ex-military officer and businessman, Anatoliy Amelin, founder of one of Ukraine’s largest investment companies, Altani Capital.

Another UIF founder, Taras Berezovets, is a graduate of Britain’s Royal College of Defence Studies who became head of the UIF’s National Security and Defense section. The late Oleksiy Skrypnyk was Deputy Chairman of the Permanent Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, who during the Trump years successfully “lobbied the United States to supply Ukraine with sophisticated Javelin anti-tank missiles.”

Lt. Col. Grant works as a security and defense expert at the UIF, “where he is supporting the Parliamentary Defence Committee” and leads military volunteers and army officers. Grant is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Statecraft (IfS): the notorious military-intelligence front organization set up in 2005 and registered to a derelict-looking mill in Scotland. As has been well-documented elsewhere, the IfS spun out a British Foreign Office-funded organization called the Integrity Initiative, which created covert “clusters” of journalists, academics, and other anti-Russian influencers.

Earlier in 2022, the UK-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) completed its year-long tenure as NATO’s combat corps headquarters. Training teams later deployed to Estonia and Ukraine. The ARRC also partners with the Romanian-led Multinational Corps South-East.

This March, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that Britain deployed to Poland the Sky Sabre medium-range, anti-aircraft system, which consists of radar and trucks carrying missiles, including 100 personnel. Troops from the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery operate the weapon. Others from the Regiment have been at a base on Baker Barracks, Thorney Island (on the English Channel), ready to deploy to Poland. Starstreak, meanwhile, is described as a high velocity anti-craft missile, which was sent to Ukraine.

“Diplomacy is the only path,” UK Defense Secretary declares while promising escalation in Ukraine

In September 2021, MoD personnel met with the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU), a wing of the Ukrainian military providing the umbrella for notorious battalions of neo-Nazi activists and criminal elements.  Operation Orbital’s Lt. Col. Andy Cox Deputy commander said: “We will start this work with the inclusion of NGU representatives in the training activities that are already being conducted by British instructors in some units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” Classified in the UK, the information was posted on the NGU website, prompting denials from the MoD.

In February 2022, the Royal Welsh Battlegroup left its base in Germany to travel to Estonia as part of Operation Iron Surge, which included a convoy of Warrior infantry fighting vehicles and Challenger 2 main battle tanks. Other entities involved included the 1st Aviation Brigade Combat Team of the Army Air Corps. 

Britain’s daffy Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who later fell for a state secret-spilling prank, said: “Alongside our NATO Allies, we are deploying troops and assets on land, sea and air to bolster European defences in response to the build-up of Russian military forces on the border of Ukraine.” He added: “De-escalation and diplomacy remain the only path out of this situation,” as he continued to escalate the situation and quash efforts to negotiate a settlement.

Video-prank with British Defense Minister Ben Wallace

On March 17, 2022, Vovan and Lexus held a video conference with British Defense Minister Ben Wallace on behalf of Prime Minister of Denis Shmyhal. Wait for the full version of the conversation in a few days on our channel. pic.twitter.com/siq9FYKvFE

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) March 23, 2022

Also in February, it was reported that a team of Special Air Service (SAS) veterans who had fought in Afghanistan and Iraq were receiving money funneled through an unnamed private company via an unnamed European country. Veterans include warrant officers, sergeants, corporals, and snipers who will reportedly kill Russian spotters. The veterans are expert Javelin and Stinger missile operators, suggesting that they training the Ukrainians how to use such weapons. In addition, the US Joint Special Operations Group and SAS reportedly have an evacuation plan for high-ranking politicians, including Zelenskyy.

A month later, four British soldiers went AWOL to fight Russians. This prompted an official ban on personnel traveling to Ukraine. In April, the UK hosted the Ukrainian delegation to the Salisbury Plain Training Area. Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister, Volodymyr Havrylo, witnessed the British Army’s 3rd Division and Royal Marines demonstrating “a range of equipment and options for further military support, including defensive missile systems and protected mobility vehicles.”

James Heappey, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defense, confirmed that 120 armored vehicles were being manufactured/sent to Ukraine and that Ukrainian forces would be trained to use them in the UK. Special Forces arrived in Obolon, Kyiv, to train the Ukrainian 112th Battalion in how to use NLAW anti-tank missiles.  Later that month, it was alleged that around 20 sabotage experts from the SAS had arrived in Lviv, western Ukraine. The Mirror reported that a squadron of serving SAS troops in Poland trained Ukrainians in sabotage.

By May, Britain had sent Ukraine 4,000 NLAWs, an undisclosed number of Javelin missiles, 3,000 sets of body armor, 2,000 helmets, and 4,000 (presumably pairs of) boots. Thousands of grenades, claymore anti-personnel devices, heavy machine guns, high-velocity sniper rifles, and 66mm anti-tank weapons had been sent via NATO countries.

And by the end of that month, the UK taxpayer had forked out a stunning £2.8 billion to Ukraine in so-called aid programs and military equipment, including 6,500 anti-tank missiles.

In June, reservists from the UK’s 4th Battalion, Mercian Regiment, trained with the Lithuanian Army’s Iron Wolf Brigade. The 3,500-troop exercises included forces from 14 different countries, including Ukraine. The 1st Regiment Army Air Corps provided four Wildcat helicopters. Heappey, the Under-Secretary of State for Defense, said: “The UK plans to deploy 1,050 UK Service personnel to facilitate the training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is estimated that 900 of these will be responsible for the training aspect of the programme.”

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss encourages British citizens to fight in Ukraine

In October 2015, Foreign Policy reported: “When separatists started a war in eastern Ukraine, hundreds of Russians, Belarusians, and other foreigners came to Kiev’s defense. Now they’ve been abandoned.” Flash forward to the present, and the British government and elements of the media are openly encouraging volunteers to kill and die in Ukraine, even though young men are returning and warning others that they are being used for “suicide mission[s].”

In April, when asked by the BBC about British people volunteering in Ukraine, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, who is likely to replace Johnson as PM, said: “I do support that, and of course, that is something that people can make their own decisions about.” It was reported that Truss’s comments provoked Russia to put its nuclear weapons on high alert.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, immediately contradicted Truss: “We’ve been very clear that it’s unlawful as well as unhelpful for UK military and for the UK population to start going towards Ukraine in that sense.”  Johnson’s spokesperson said: “We currently advise against travelling to Ukraine.”

By June, a reported 20,000 volunteers were fighting in Ukraine, of whom 3,000 were British. Up to 80 percent pass through the Georgian Legion, which operates under Ukrainian command, where the volunteers are supposedly vetted. “You’re more of a hindrance than a help,” says veteran Martin Dunwoody, who went to give humanitarian aid but ended up advising the inexperienced combat volunteers he encountered.

Former Royal Navy engineer, “Curtis,” joined other foreign fighters via the base in Yavoriv, explaining: “There was absolutely no structure to it at all, nothing at all.” He fought in Irpin, near Kyiv City. “Most of the ex-serving, whether it’s Navy, Army, Marines, even the Air Force, some guys were there – they were within a decent age, 30 and above, but there were a lot of young guys who had never been in any serving military, had no  military training at all, kind of Call of Duty-type people.” Curtis reckoned that over 20 Britons had already died in Ukraine: “We were using essentially supermarket radios, which are not at all decent for fighting with, Russians can listen to everything we were saying, and it was highlighted many times.”

Anton Vybornyi, a British citizen and businessman, was pictured in Korczowa, Poland, on the border with Ukraine with his van full of military equipment. “It includes body armour”, and his team, Alexei Kalmikov and Andrius Dargis. Vybornyi raised £25,000 to assist the volunteers.

IMAGE: British citizen and Businessman, Anton Vybornyi, pictured in Korczowa, Poland, on the border with Ukraine, with his van full of military equipment

CONCLUSION: TRUTH IN THE RECORDS

As usual, government and military records reveal the opposite of statements by politicians and their media echo-chambers about the events that precipitated the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine.

A British House of Commons research briefing contains a timeline which notes that in February 2019, Ukraine’s constitution was amended to set its NATO membership application into motion. In June 2020, Ukraine was granted NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partner status. In September, President Zelenskyy adopted a National Security Strategy, which included provisions for joining NATO.

In April 2021, Russia announced a troop build-up and exercises on the border. Notice the chronology. Later that month, Russia “re-deployed its forces back to their home bases.” In October of that year, the Ukrainian military used a drone in eastern Ukraine, “angering Russia.” After amassing troops on the border, Russia in December 2021 demanded security guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO. Putin then presented draft proposals to the United Nations Security Council. The House of Commons briefing makes no reference to Britain or America’s responses – or lack thereof – to the proposals. In January this year, US President Biden seemed to invite Russia’s invasion by referring to the impending events as a potential “incursion” not invasion, which Putin took to be a signal that the US would not react harshly.

Another House of Commons Library research briefing states: “Russia is seeking longer-term security guarantees from the Alliance that Ukraine will not be admitted as a Member State and that NATO military infrastructure will not be deployed in the country.” The briefing paper also notes that NATO had escalated around Ukraine: “NATO allies have moved to shore up the defence of eastern Europe with the deployment of additional ships and fighter aircraft to the region.” The 2014-15 Minsk Agreements remain “largely unimplemented by both sides.”

The combination of hubris, intransigence and militarism reflected in these official UK documents helps explain how the stage was set for a mad confrontation between nuclear powers.

See more news from The Grayzone

READ MORE RUSSIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire RUSSIAN Files

SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM – BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

VISIT OUR TELEGRAM CHANNEL