GCHQ boss reveals how Russia is 'relentlessly targeting' the UK

Russia is "relentlessly targeting" critical infrastructure and democracy in the UK and across Europe, the head of the intelligence agency GCHQ will warn.

Anne Keast-Butler will also use the first of what is set to be an annual threat assessment to reveal that her officers are helping to counter "reckless sabotage and assassination attempts" by the Kremlin.

She will warn that the risk of miscalculation, which could trigger wider conflict, "is as high as I have ever seen it".

At the same time, Ms Keast-Butler will say in a lecture on Wednesday that Vladimir Putin is "going backwards on the battlefield" in Ukraine.

This observation chimes with the findings of a research group that says Russian troops are under growing pressure, with the rate of land they are capturing slowing and with Ukrainian forces starting to retake more territory than they are losing for the first time since 2023.

The Institute for the Study of War said: "Open data on Russia's battlefield performance indicates that the character of the war is shifting in favour of Ukrainian forces, at least for now. Russian forces' rates of advances are stagnating while Ukrainian forces are employing novel tactics and operational concepts in efforts to break out of positional warfare."

Ms Keast-Butler will be speaking at Bletchley Park, the wartime home of the signals and now cyber intelligence agency.

She will talk about a "moment of consequence" and a "new era of radical uncertainty, contested geopolitics and rapidly changing technology", according to excerpts of the lecture that were released in advance.

Russia is a key cause of the uncertainty, with the spy chief expected to warn that it is "relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust".

She will accuse Moscow of "scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe".

She will say "in the face of such aggression and chaos, GCHQ is working tirelessly with intelligence and defence partners to degrade and reduce the Russian threat".

This includes "seeing around corners" to help the UK prepare.

Ms Keast-Butler will talk about the covert work by her officers aimed at "disrupting Russia's efforts to smuggle Western tech, fending off cyber attacks, and countering reckless sabotage and assassination attempts".

Details of the thwarted assassinations were not included in the excerpts.

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'China is now a tech superpower'

The lecture will also cover the challenge posed by China, with the GCHQ director cautioning that there is a "narrowing window for the UK and allies to stay ahead".

She will say that "China is now a science and tech superpower - with sophisticated capabilities across their intelligence, cyber and military agencies".

In addition, rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technology means "the ground beneath our feet is shifting".

Such a landscape requires spy agencies and technology companies to work together.

There is a role for the public as well to improve individual resilience to a cyber attack.

"At home that means taking important action now to switch passwords for passkeys, and for wider society, it means hardwiring security into new technologies, protecting supply chains and making cyber security ten times more urgent," Ms Keast-Butler will say.

The lecture marks the first of what will be an annual event in which the serving director of GCHQ will set out the agency's assessment of the threat landscape. It is something the head of MI5 already does annually. The head of MI6 also gives a yearly, public speech.

(c) Sky News 2026: GCHQ boss reveals how Russia is 'relentlessly targeting' the UK