British authorities on Friday imposed sanctions on Russia's GRU military intelligence agency and 18 of its agents, accusing them of "spreading chaos and disorder" across the United Kingdom and Europe."GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilize Europe, undermine Ukraine's sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens," Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement.
"Putin's hybrid threats and aggression will never break our resolve."Britain's Foreign Office said the sanctions targeted three GRU units and 18 intelligence officers over their alleged "campaign of malicious cyber activity over many years, including in the U.K.""The GRU routinely uses cyber and information operations to sow chaos, division and disorder in Ukraine and across the world with devastating real-world consequences," it said in a statement.Among those sanctioned are agents allegedly linked to an attempted malware attack on Yulia Skripal, daughter of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, five years before she and her father were poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018.British officials said the GRU had also targeted domestic entities, including media outlets, telecoms providers and energy infrastructure.One of the sanctioned military intelligence units was involved in online reconnaissance used to guide missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, including the bombing of a theater where civilians were sheltering, the Foreign Office said.