How Russia could bring Britain 'to its knees' in worrying ‘anything is a target’ warning

Russia is capable of bringing Britain 'to its knees' by using hybrid warfare according to a new warning from experts.

While this would not be using conventional warfare, so missiles, guns, and tanks, the threat is of a more clandestine nature, though it may still be able to cause mayhem.

This is using hybrid attacks, which might involve using cyberattacks to target parts of the UK"s infrastructure, as well as using cheap, easy to produce drones to wreak mayhem.

Russia has already been accused of carrying out such attacks in Europe, such as an arson attack on a drone manufacturer in Slovakia and drones filled with explosives being found at Leipzig Airport.

Professor Anthony Glees is a security expert at the University of Buckingham, said: “Places of strategic importance like banking could be targets.

“Russia is very single-minded – you destroy brick-by-brick where your enemy is based.

“If there’s no money to pay for the defence industry, there’s no money. If you can’t fund the infrastructure, it collapses in days.

“We are vulnerable in this digital age – a week without access to electronic banking, we would be on our knees. Russia is capable of that, they have some of the best hackers in the world.

Russia could use 'grey zone' attacks against the UK (Gavriil GRIGOROV / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

“Putin keeps them at arms length, but they’re effectively paid for by Russian military.”

Katja Bego is a Senior Research Fellow at policy institute Chatham House, and told The Sun: “Hospitals, airports, power plants, ports – almost anything is a potential target. This means it’s almost impossible to protect all these systems at once.”

Small drones are very easy to acquire, and could be used to disrupt facilities such as power plants or airports, while cyberattacks could be used to target things like financial institutions.

Bego explained that such operations would 'stop short of war', but nonetheless have the potential to cause 'public unrest and uncertainty'.

Experts do believe that it is unlikely that Russia would launch the kind of attack that could lead to mass casualties, as this would be a declaration of war.

General Sir Richard Barrons is a co-author of the strategic defence review which was presented to the government, and gave a grim picture of Russia's view of the UK.

The invasion of Ukraine continues to grind on (Mikhail METZEL / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

“The UK is attacked by Russia every day, but below the threshold of military conflict – cyber attacks and manipulation of social media – they interfere with our public discourse," he said.

He added: “We should be in no doubt that Russia under Putin is at war with the UK, and this isn’t new."

Barrons even went on to advise that the public are aware of the potential risks of these 'grey zone attacks'.

“In a time of escalating grey zone attacks and mounting threats out of Moscow, it is incredibly important that citizens understand the potential risks, have supplies at home and know what to do in a crisis, such as a major power outage," he said.

“This type of readiness was something we put a lot of time and focus on during the Cold War but has now been largely forgotten.”