Fires occurred at two properties associated with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May 2025. Investigators determined that 22-year-old Ukrainian citizen Roman Lavrynovych carried out these attacks. Lavrynovych was recruited and received payment through the messaging application Telegram by a Russian handler he never met. He was subsequently convicted for his role in the attacks. The organizer of the attacks is reportedly in Russia and is linked to a pro-Kremlin group, which the U.S. has described as a "state-sanctioned project."

British spy chief Anne Keast-Butler stated in May that the UK and its allies are in "a space between peace and war." Keast-Butler accused Russia of "scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe, stretching from the seabed to cyberspace."

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western officials have connected Russia to 191 acts of sabotage, arson, and disruption across Europe. Documented Russian attacks in Europe nearly tripled from 2023 to 2024. Poland has accused the Kremlin of probing alliance defenses through several means. These include cyberattacks, disinformation, drone incursions, and the deliberate weaponization of migration along its borders. Britain has released a policy paper pledging to increase cooperation with European partners on hybrid threats, with plans to develop deeper bilateral coordination with France, Germany, Poland, and Brussels. Sweden is establishing a new civilian foreign intelligence agency dedicated to countering threats from abroad, which is set to launch in January 2027. NATO has begun partnering with private firms, including cybersecurity companies and utilities providers, to help member states monitor Russian activity.