Russia 18 spies accused of UK cyber-attacks face sanctions

The UK has exposed 18 Russian spies and their units responsible for cyber-attacks in Britain and hacking one of the victims of the Salisbury poisonings, said David Lammy, the foreign secretary.

- Rowena Mason

Announcing individual sanctions, Lammy said Russia has targeted media outlets, telecoms providers, political and democratic institutions and energy infrastructure in the UK in recent years.

He also said two of the spies had been involved in planting X-agent spyware on a device used by Yulia Skripal, the daughter of the former spy Sergei Skripal, five years before they were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in 2018.

The Skripals survived the attack on British soil but an unrelated woman, Dawn Sturgess, was killed after her boyfriend stumbled across the poison in a perfume bottle. X-agent is believed to be linked to the hacking group Fancy Bear, which has ties to Russia's GRU military intelligence unit 26165, which is being sanctioned.