UK military chief warns Britain is falling behind Europe on Russia threat

Britain's most senior military officer says the country is lagging behind its neighbours on Russia. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the chief of the defence staff, told the FT the UK needs to "catch up with our European allies," who he said are more awake to the Kremlin's appetite for risk. "This is the most dangerous period I've known in my adult life," the 57-year-old said, adding that the threat is "principally from Russia, but more broadly globally" and "is rising."

Knighton argued that "hybrid activity" is too soft a label for what Moscow is alleged to be doing. He listed "targeted assassinations," "sabotage" and "cyber attacks" — acts he described as "very real, real things [by] the Russian state we have proof of in Europe and to some extent in the UK." Russia has previously denied involvement in hybrid attacks on European soil.

His warning landed the same week European security officials said they were probing whether a wave of bomb threats against European airlines and news organisations originated in Russia. Intelligence officials told the FT a cross-border investigation is under way, with a long road ahead before anyone can be definitively blamed. Some in the community were already confident Russia was the most likely culprit, the paper reported.

Knighton also said the British state now has to explain the Russian threat to the public while making the case for higher defence spending. Appearing on the BBC on Sunday, he backed the government's call for households to stockpile water and food. Asked about his own emergency kit, he said he had been mulling it over with his wife and spent the weekend clearing cupboards, discovering "there's a lot of tins in the Knighton household." He added: "I put some extra shelves in."

The emergency services and armed forces remain the nation's "first line of defence," he said, but ordinary people can help too. Writing for The Independent last month, Knighton urged Europe to shoulder more responsibility for its own security as war returns to the continent. "This is not about preparing for war. It is about preventing it," he wrote, arguing that "weakness can invite aggression, while strength preserves peace."