MI6 chief warns abandoning Ukraine would lead to ‘infinitely higher’ long-term security costs
The head of MI6 has said abandoning Ukraine would jeopardise Western security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term in a speech that some claimed was a plea to President-elect Donald Trump.
In a rare public appearance, Richard Moore said he believed Vladimir Putin “would not stop” at Ukraine if he was allowed to subjugate it in any peace talks involving the incoming Republican administration.
Moore has served as the top brass at the UK’s foreign intelligence agency for four years in what is usually pitched as a five-year job.
The spy chief was suggested as a possible surprise appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US. However, he is not thought to be pressing for the job.
Speaking at a press conference in Paris alongside his French counterpart, Moore said: “If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there. Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised.
“The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known…but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds, China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.”
It comes amid tensions in the US over President-elect Trump, who has previously complained about the expense of supporting Kyiv and said repeatedly that he wants to end the war, claiming he could do so “within 24 hours.”
Moore added: “For decades the US-UK intelligence alliance has made our societies safer; I worked successfully with the first Trump administration to advance our shared security and look forward to doing so again.”
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Moore said Putin’s goal was to “challenge western resolve” and that western spy agencies had “recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe”.
French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed his support for Ukraine and reiterated his condemnation of an escalation in Russia’s attacks against the country in a phone call with Ukraine President Volodimir Zelensky.
A statement from President Macron’s office said Macron held his phone call with Zelensky on Friday, during which Macron “condemned in the strongest possible terms Russia’s indiscriminate attacks which are consistently intensifying against towns, civilian populations and against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.”
A separate statement from President Zelensky on the Telegram social media platform said he had again stressed to Macron the importance of a NATO invitation to Ukraine.
In general terms, Moore said the world was in its most dangerous state in his 37 years working in the intelligence world, with Islamic State on the rise again, Iran’s nuclear ambitions a continued threat, and the radicalising impact of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel not yet fully known.
Head of France’s foreign spy agency DGS Nicolas Lerner, , said French and UK intelligence were working closely together “to face what is undoubtedly one of the threats – if not the threat – in my opinion, the possible atomic proliferation in Iran”.
Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear weapons.