UK government warns of potential attacks on British soil in stark security review

The British government has issued a sobering warning that the United Kingdom must prepare for the possibility of coming under direct attack at home, amid escalating global instability and emerging security threats.

The warning is contained in the UK’s latest national security strategy, which outlines a significantly more alarming assessment of risks facing the country than in previous years, Caliber.Az reports, citing British media.

According to the review, the growing military assertiveness of Russia and the intensification of Iranian operations against dissidents abroad suggest that the UK could soon be forced to respond to domestic threats of war-like proportions.

“For the first time in many years, we have to actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario,” the document states. It further warns that adversaries are “laying the foundations for future conflict,” including moves to destabilise Britain’s energy supplies and supply chains to deter UK resistance to foreign aggression.

The review directly names Russia as the most pressing threat, citing not only its continued invasion of Ukraine but also a coordinated campaign of cyberattacks, sabotage, and increasingly aggressive nuclear rhetoric aimed at deterring NATO responses.

“The [Ukraine] war has been accompanied by a campaign of indirect and sub-threshold activity – including cyber-attacks and sabotage – by Russia against the UK and other NATO allies and the use of increased nuclear rhetoric in an attempt to constrain our decision making,” the report notes.

Among the most critical concerns is the vulnerability of the UK’s undersea fibre-optic cables — responsible for 99% of digital data transfer — which the review says are under “persistent and growing” threat from Russian submarine activity.

Iran is also singled out as a key security concern. The review warns that Tehran’s growing alliance with Moscow and its mounting efforts to target and silence critics abroad are making Iranian operations a direct danger to UK interests. “Iranian hostile activity on British soil is also increasing, as part of the Iranian regime’s efforts to silence its critics abroad, as well as directly threatening the UK,” it reads.

In a foreword to the document, Prime Minister Keir Starmer writes, “The world has changed. Russian aggression menaces our continent. Strategic competition is intensifying. Extremist ideologies are on the rise. Technology is transforming the nature of both war and domestic security. Hostile state activity takes place on British soil.”

The publication of the strategy coincides with the NATO summit in The Hague, where Prime Minister Starmer reaffirmed his commitment to meet NATO’s target of spending 5% of GDP on defence by 2035. His pledge aligns with earlier warnings by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who recently remarked that unless defence budgets are significantly increased, “British people better learn to speak Russian.”

This new review follows a separate strategic defence document issued earlier this year that called for a major expansion of the UK’s military capabilities, including accelerated production of drones, submarines, and artificial intelligence systems.

In contrast to the previous major review published under Boris Johnson’s government during the Covid-19 pandemic — which focused heavily on pandemic preparedness and vaccine development — the current strategy places near-exclusive focus on state-level threats and military readiness, with only cursory mention of public health risks.

While the report stops short of delving into specific concerns regarding China, it notes that ministers have completed a classified “China audit,” which officials now say will not be published in full.

By Tamilla Hasanova