Britain seeing five-fold increase in grey zone attacks, senior anti-terror chief warns
There has been a five-fold increase in grey zone attacks on Britain since 2020, a counter-terror official has warned, originating primarily in Russia and Iran.
For the past six years, Russia, China, Iran and other enemy states have been targeting the UK using arson, criminal damage, cyber attack, disinformation and bribery.
Commander Dom Murphy, the head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, is responsible for making sure these attacks don't succeed.
Money not the only motivator
While the majority of attacks have come from Russia and Iran, he said China still presents a significant challenge along with various other countries.
Cdr Murphy, the man responsible for prosecuting some of the most serious national security breaches in recent years, said there were no real trends to follow because the attacks were so broad.
"We've already seen sabotage. We've seen threat-to-life operations. We've seen spying operations and espionage all conducted by criminal proxies tasked to do activity on behalf of foreign states," he told BFBS Forces News.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of intelligence officials were expelled from Nato countries, leaving Moscow to rely on criminal proxies.
One of these was Dylan Earl from Leicestershire, who was jailed for 17 years in 2025 for his role in burning down a Ukrainian-owned warehouse in east London.
"Dylan Earl is a very good case study in this respect," said Cdr Murphy. "Primarily motivated by money, but had a fascination with Russia, a fascination with the Wagner Group.
"But the vast majority of them are tempted by money and the feeling of doing something slightly bigger or slightly more exciting than perhaps they're ordinarily involved in."
A pro-Russia narrative – for cash
Cdr Murphy also discussed the case of Nathan Gill.
Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk was one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies, and a man who spoke out defending him was Nathan Gill, at the time a prominent Brexit Party MEP who went on to lead the Reform Party in Wales.
In November 2025, Gill was convicted of eight counts of bribery for making statements supporting Russian narratives in exchange for cash. He was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in jail.
"It's a really unusual case, actually," said Cdr Murphy. "And the team that worked on it were fascinated by it because it's so unusual. And we don't see those cases very often.
"But here you have an elected official – elected by the people of Wales to represent them in the European Parliament.
"Over a number of years, we've uncovered evidence to suggest that Nathan Gill was taking money from the Russians and others to provide questions, statements and challenges in the European Parliament, all on behalf of a pro-Russia narrative.
"So yet again we come back around to Russia, and it's quite clear to us that this activity would have been absolutely known to the Kremlin.
"And Nathan Gill was, in effect, a voice box for the Kremlin. And he commits a number of very significant offences as a result."
Counter-terror chief sanctioned by Moscow
Cdr Murphy was asked whether he had personally received any threats, to which he replied: "Well, I've been sanctioned by Russia.
"I wouldn't describe that as a threat. I probably see it as we must be doing something right if they felt the need to do that."
Cdr Murphy said the police had had some tremendous successes alongside its partners in disrupting grey zone activity.
But he issued a warning about hostile agents and their local proxies, saying: "They've only got to be lucky once. We've got to be lucky or really good every time."
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