Blaise Metreweli expected to say UK faces new age of uncertainty in speech identifying Kremlin as key threat

Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean that the frontline is everywhere, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday.

Blaise Metreweli, giving her first speech in the job, is expected to say the UK faces a new age of uncertainty where the rules of conflict are being rewritten, particularly in light of wider Kremlin aggression after the invasion of Ukraine.

The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug, in the Russian approach to international engagement, the agencys first female chief will argue, and until Putin is forced to change his calculus it is expected to continue.

Similar comments about the scale of the threat, particularly from Russia, are expected to be made by Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, the chief of the defence staff, who is due to say in a separate speech that the situation is more dangerous than I have known during my career and call for the country as a whole to be stepping up.

Their pre-released remarks come as Keir Starmer is due to fly to Berlin for an emergency summit with European leaders, including Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Donald Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff in an effort to persuade the US to accept an alternative European peace plan for Ukraine.

Russia is identified as an acute threat by Metreweli in her speech, due to be released in full on Monday afternoon, with an aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist mindset that has led to Vladimir Putin ordering the invasion of its neighbour, and deploying aggressive supporting tactics across Europe.

Putin should be in no doubt: our support is enduring. The pressure we apply on Ukraines behalf will be sustained, the spy chief is expected to say, though the diplomatic reality of the past month is that the US position is uncertain, with Trump and Witkoff previously favouring Russian demands.

Threats faced by the UK include the attempt to kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 with a nerve toxin, which led to the death of the British woman Dawn Sturgess. A public inquiry into the death of Sturgess, who accidentally picked up the poison bottle, concluded this month that the Russian president was morally responsible .

They also include Russian efforts to use artificial intelligence to create disinformation on a vast scale, to create online videos aimed at undermining public support for Ukraine or spreading false rumours about the health of the Princess of Wales, as highlighted in a recent speech by the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper .

Six Bulgarians living in the UK were jailed in May for their part in a spy plot, which included the hostile surveillance of an investigative journalist known for Kremlin exposs across Europe and an attempt to retrieve the phone numbers of Ukrainian soldiers thought to be training in Germany.

However, in the advance excerpts, there was no explicit mention of China, other than to refer to last weeks sanctioning of two companies based in the country accused of engaging in indiscriminate hacking against the UK and its allies.

Ministers are still grappling with whether to allow China to build a new super-embassy at Royal Mint Court in London, while the prime minister is hoping to visit Beijing in January before Trump goes there in April.

Knighton, the countrys top military officer since September, is also expected to emphasise the threat from Russia to both the UK and the Nato military alliance, in his first annual lecture at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank.

The war in Ukraine shows Putins willingness to target neighbouring states, including their civilian populations, he is expected to say, arguing that Moscow wants to challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy Nato.

He will argue the long-term success of the armed forces relies on reconnecting with society so that defence becomes a higher national priority for all of us, with more Britons becoming involved.

Metreweli took over from Richard Moore as the chief of MI6 , or C, in October. Previously she was MI6s head of its technology and innovation department, or Q, and spent most of her career in the Middle East and Europe.

The new leader will also emphasise that the international spy agency has to remain on top of trends in computing, traditionally the domain of its sister agency GCHQ, as well as maintain the effective use of human sources of intelligence, its traditional trade.

Mastery of technology must infuse everything we do. Not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft, and even more importantly, in the mindset of every officer. We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages, she is expected to say.

The pre-released excerpts highlighted more general reference to the moral dimension of high-tech power, though allies said this was not a coded criticism of Donald Trumps White House, but rather a call for a whole of society approach to technological development.

The defining challenge of the 21st century is not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom. Our security, our prosperity, and our humanity depend on it, the new chief will say.

The spy chief is expected to say that we all have choices to make ahead and that it will be our rediscovery of our shared humanity, our ability to listen, and our courage that will determine how our future unfolds.

布莱斯·梅特雷韦利预计将在演讲中指出，英国面临新的“不确定时代”，并将克里姆林宫列为关键威胁

英国军情六处新任负责人将于周一发出警告：俄罗斯等敌对国家的暗杀阴谋、破坏活动、网络攻击及信息操纵行为意味着"战线无处不在"。

布莱斯·梅特雷韦利在就职后的首次演讲中预计将表示，英国正面临一个“充满不确定性的新时代”，冲突规则正在被改写，尤其是在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后克里姆林宫更广泛的侵略行为背景下。

该机构首位女性负责人将指出，在国际交往中，输出混乱是俄罗斯策略的特色而非缺陷。只要普京未被逼改变其盘算，这种行为预计将持续下去。

英国国防参谋长、空军上将理查德·奈顿预计将就威胁规模——尤其是来自俄罗斯的威胁——发表类似观点。他将在另一场演讲中表示"当前局势比我职业生涯中所经历的任何时刻都更加危险"，并呼吁整个国家"提升战备状态"。

基尔·斯塔默即将飞往柏林参加与欧洲领导人的紧急峰会，与会者包括乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基以及唐纳德·特朗普的特使史蒂夫·维特科夫，旨在说服美国接受一项针对乌克兰的欧洲替代和平方案。相关言论于会前提前发布。

梅特雷韦利在将于周一下午全文发布的演讲中指出，俄罗斯是一个严峻威胁。该国秉持“侵略性、扩张主义和修正主义”思维，导致弗拉基米尔·普京下令入侵邻国，并在整个欧洲部署激进的支援战术。

情报部门负责人预计将表示："普京不应有任何怀疑：我们的支持是持久的。我们代表乌克兰施加的压力也将持续。"然而过去一个月的外交现实表明，美国的立场并不明确，特朗普和维特科夫此前曾倾向于支持俄罗斯的要求。

英国面临的威胁包括2018年在索尔兹伯里使用神经毒剂企图谋杀谢尔盖·斯克里帕尔和尤利娅·斯克里帕尔的事件，该事件导致英国女性唐·斯特奇斯不幸身亡。本月公布的一项针对斯特奇斯死亡的公开调查得出结论——她因意外接触毒剂瓶而丧生——认定俄罗斯总统对此负有『道义责任』。

正如英国外交大臣伊薇特·库珀在近期演讲中所强调的，这些行为还包括俄罗斯利用人工智能大规模制造虚假信息，制作旨在削弱公众对乌克兰支持的在线视频，或散布有关威尔士王妃健康状况的不实谣言。

今年5月，六名居住在英国的保加利亚人因参与一起间谍阴谋被判入狱。该阴谋包括对一名以揭露克里姆林宫内幕而闻名欧洲的调查记者进行敌对监视，并试图获取据信在德国受训的乌克兰士兵的电话号码。

然而，在提前披露的节选内容中，除了提及上周对两家中国公司的制裁——这两家公司被指控对英国及其盟友实施无差别网络攻击——之外，并未明确提到中国。

英国政府部长们仍在就是否允许中国在伦敦皇家铸币局旧址建造新超级大使馆进行激烈讨论，而英国首相则希望于明年1月访问北京——这将在特朗普总统4月访华之前成行。

自9月起担任英国最高军事官员的奈顿（Knighton），预计将在皇家联合军种研究所智库的首场年度演讲中，强调俄罗斯对英国及北约军事联盟构成的威胁。

他预计会表示，乌克兰战争表明普京有意将邻国及其平民作为打击目标，并称莫斯科企图"挑战、限制、分裂并最终摧毁北约"。

他将指出，军队的长期成功依赖于重新与社会建立联系，从而使国防成为"我们所有人的更高国家优先事项"，并让更多英国人参与其中。

梅特列维利于10月接替理查德·摩尔出任英国秘密情报局（MI6，代号C）局长。此前她曾担任该局技术与创新部门（代号Q）负责人，职业生涯大部分时间在中东和欧洲度过。

新任领导人还将强调，该国际间谍机构必须紧跟计算机技术发展趋势（这一领域传统上由其姊妹机构英国政府通信总部负责），同时保持对人力情报来源的有效利用——这是其传统优势领域。

她将表示：“我们必须让技术能力渗透到工作的每个环节——不仅限于实验室，还要贯穿实地行动、专业技能，更重要的是深入每位人员的思维模式。我们要像熟悉线人情报那样自如地编写代码，像掌握多门语言一样流畅运用Python。”

预先发布的节选内容更广泛地提及高科技力量的道德维度，不过盟友表示，这并非对唐纳德·特朗普政府的隐晦批评，而是呼吁全社会共同参与科技发展。

新任负责人将表示："21世纪的关键挑战不在于谁掌握最强大的技术，而在于谁能以最大的智慧引导这些技术。我们的安全、繁荣乃至人性尊严皆系于此。"

这位情报部门负责人预计将表示，"我们所有人都面临未来的抉择"，并强调"正是我们对共同人性的重新发现、倾听的能力以及勇气，将决定未来的走向"。