By GB News (Politics) | Created at 2024-11-29 21:00:51 | Updated at 2024-11-29 23:35:47
2 hours ago
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.
Sir Richard Moore made a rare public appearance to speak about the conflict
Reuters
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump attend a meeting in 2019
Reuters
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump with President Zelensky
Reuters
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.
President Macron and Preident Zelensky
Reuters
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.
