UK to Europe: The time to counter Russia's information war machine is now

Foreign secretary set to address senior diplomats later today

The UK's foreign secretary is calling for closer collaboration with Europe to combat the growing threat of information warfare as hybrid attacks target countries on the continent.

In a wide-ranging speech due later this afternoon, Yvette Cooper will remind senior diplomats and European dignitaries of the methods that "malign foreign states" are using to undermine trust in domestic powers.

"Across Europe we are witnessing an escalation in hybrid threats – from physical through to cyber – designed to weaken critical national infrastructure, undermine our interests and interfere in our democracies all for the advantage of malign foreign states," she is expected to say.

Cooper will also say that the tools available to hostile foreign forces to sow distrust in matters such as elections are democratized, allowing lower-skilled individuals and groups to carry out effective campaigns on behalf of a nation.

In a draft of her speech, seen by The Register, the foreign secretary did not explicitly tie any single nation to the threats facing the West, although Russia was mentioned as tensions mount over the future of its conflict with Ukraine.

The UK understands that Russia is behind some of the most robust online misinformation networks in operation, such as the Doppelgänger campaign. They are adept at flooding social media with deepfake material in the most widely spoken European languages, as well as disseminating fake documents, with the goal of advancing Russia's objectives.

These campaigns persist, targeting democracies across the world. Just two months ago, officials spotted a Russian plot to undermine trust in Moldova's pro-European PAS party by publishing fake documents supporting unpopular policies.

In Africa, a slew of fake news sites were running false stories about Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife to taint support for the Ukrainian president.

Cooper will say: "A hundred years ago, such malign actors or state-sponsored disrupters may have relied on expertly forged documents or carefully planted stories to manipulate public opinion, but today's technology is lowering the barrier to entry – meaning more actors, with less skill, can work on behalf of regimes abroad.

"They can interfere with free and fair elections, so that Western interests are weakened and lose allies on the global stage.

"By flooding social media with generative AI and manipulated videos, they can gradually undermine support for our major allies like Ukraine with lies – hitting our collective resolve to support Ukraine's resistance to Russia's illegal invasion."

The speech today, due to be delivered in the Locarno Suite in London on the centenary of the Locarno Treaties, comes five days after the UK announced additional sanctions on Russia's GRU after an inquiry concluded that Putin directly ordered the 2018 Salisbury Novichok poisonings.

"Putin and his GRU agents are an active threat to Britain's citizens, our security, and our prosperity," Cooper said late last week.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in the inquiry report: "The UK will always stand up to Putin's brutal regime and call out his murderous machine for what it is."

Cooper's speech comes amid rising tensions around the future of Russia's war in Ukraine, and the related US-led peace talks – which largely favor Russia – appear to be making little ground.

Zelenskyy said this week that Ukraine will not be able to survive without the backing of the UK and Europe, and separately waved away any notions of ceding land, which featured in President Trump's proposed peace deal.

Mark Rutte, secretary general at NATO, addressed the US peace deal last week, saying that while Trump instigating talks was an important step, nothing should be considered agreed.

Ukraine's revised peace deal is expected to be shared with US and its allies this week after Zelenskyy refused to "betray" his country's interests by accepting the first draft, which required Ukraine to make a number of concessions to end the war. ®