Multiple Labour MPs considering defecting to Greens, says Zack Polanski

The Green Party’s new leader claims he has had multiple conversations with Labour MPs about defecting to his party as they become increasingly unhappy with the direction of Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

In an interview with The Independent, Zack Polanski said the number of Labour MPs he has spoken to who are dissatisfied with the party was in “double figures”. He added that the Greens would “absolutely” welcome disillusioned MPs, as long as they share the party’s values.

Mr Polanski named Labour left-wingers Clive Lewis and Nadia Whittome as “obvious” examples of the MPs he would welcome into the fold.

It comes amid growing concern from backbenchers over Sir Keir’s leadership, with his approval rating hitting an all-time low last month.

The beleaguered PM has come under the spotlight this week after being forced to sack Lord Peter Mandelson as US ambassador following a string of claims about his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The fresh revelations emerged just days after his former deputy Angela Rayner was forced to resign.

Asked if he would accept defectors from the Labour Party, Mr Polanski said: “Undoubtedly, there are Labour politicians that I would accept defections from. Not all of them, it’s really important to point out that caveat.

“It’s also important to point out that it wouldn’t be my decision; it would be a democratic decision made by an elected body, but that’s quite a technical answer. So I’ll answer a question directly: would I accept, as in would I encourage defections? Absolutely.”

He added: “I’ve had lots of conversations with Labour MPs concerned about where the Labour Party are going. Those are probably in double figures the amount of conversations I’ve had with Labour MPs. In terms of talking to Labour MPs about defections, that’s a smaller number, but yes, absolutely, I’m having conversations with Labour MPs who are considering defecting.

“If they align with our values, then it makes absolutely no sense to be in the Labour Party any more.”

Mr Polanski also addressed the growing speculation that the Greens could unite with Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party to create a new force on the left in British politics.

He said he would not be open to a total merger with the as-yet-unnamed party, but added he would be happy for their movement to join the Green Party and operate under that banner.

Mr Polanski has previously indicated a willingness to cooperate with the new left-wing party.

“If they all wanted to join the Green Party and be in the Green Party, I’d absolutely consider that merger. But I guess that’s not a merger … In terms of a merger between whatever their party is and the Green Party, then that’s definitely not something I’m considering,” he said.

During the interview, Mr Polanski – who said he is hoping to get as many as 39 MPs at the next election – also took aim at Sir Keir, arguing he is “an abject failure as a prime minister because he is refusing to acknowledge the feedback in the country right now, that people are angry”.

“They are absolutely furious with politics, and the danger is that this starts to wash over everyone. And that’s why I believe that Reform are topping the polls – because here they come, saying ‘we’re all angry at the old two-party system. It is crumbled, it has failed, and we are here to present solutions now’.

“I actually agree with Nigel Farage, with much of his diagnosis of the problem. The real thing here, though, is that his solutions won’t make anything better. In fact, they’ll make things significantly worse.”

As a result, he said there is a “real role here for the Green Party” to hold the Labour government to account.

“Do I think they’ve done everything wrong? No, that would be childish of me. There are small things where I think they’re moving things in the right direction, but again, it is so half-hearted that it almost makes things worse,” he added.

Mr Polanski is trying to take the fight to Reform UK, previously pitching himself as the “Nigel Farage of the left”.

Appealing directly to disillusioned voters, he said: “If you voted for this Labour government because you wanted the change that Keir Starmer promised and all you have got is the two-child benefit cap, cuts to disability benefits and a refusal to tax multimillionaires and billionaires, then you don’t need to go to Reform and the toxic politics of hate and division.

“If you want an alternative, the Green Party are there offering the politics of hope and community.”

The self-professed “eco-populist” also said “we need to reclaim patriotism”, warning that “inequality is the most unpatriotic thing possible”.

Hitting back at Sir Keir, who over the weekend dubbed Mr Polanski a “plastic progressive”, the Green Party leader said: “His patriotism could not be more plastic. He thinks patriotism is waving a flag or claiming that he hangs flags up all the time. That’s not real.”

He added: “Inequality is the most unpatriotic thing possible to allow to happen. And actually saying we should share power and wealth around this country, because everyone matters, is exactly what my patriotism is about.

“So I throw the gauntlet down to Keir. Show me what you think patriotism means. Stop name-calling.”

Mr Lewis and Ms Whittome have been vocal critics of Sir Keir’s government, with both of them rebelling against the government’s controversial welfare cuts earlier this year.

Mr Lewis has previously said he is “ashamed” of the approach the government has taken towards Gaza, as well as warning that Sir Keir was betraying Labour values with planned cuts to benefits.

The Independent has contacted both MPs for comment.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Zack Polanski doesn’t have a plan to deliver change, and he’s not serious about the serious times we face internationally. He has repeatedly suggested he would back off from Nato – which would leave Britain’s national security exposed at a time when Putin is waging an illegal war in Ukraine.

“And he leads a party that’s Green in name only: plastic progressives who oppose green infrastructure, oppose nuclear, and block housebuilding. Only Labour is focused on tackling the everyday challenges faced by working people.”

Brazil’s ex-president Bolsonaro receives 27-year jail sentence for coup plot

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison.

A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices on Thursday voted to convict former president Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.

The far-right politician who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022 was found guilty on five counts by three members of a five-justice panel.

Prosecutors charged Bolsonaro with attempting to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, as well as being implicated in violence and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.

Although his plot failed to enlist enough support from the military to go ahead, it did culminate in the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters on 8 January 2023, the justices found.

“This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present, and its future,” Justice Carmen Lucia said before she voted to convict Bolsonaro of attempting a coup, a reference to previous attempts to overthrow democracy in the country’s history.

She added that Bolsonaro acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions”.

The 70-year-old is currently under house arrest. His lawyers have said that they will appeal the verdict to the full Supreme Court of 11 justices. Bolsonaro, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not attended the court and has sent his lawyers.

He faced a close re-election campaign against president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022. During this time, Bolsonaro’s comments took on an increasingly messianic quality, raising concerns about his willingness to accept the results.

“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory,” he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders in 2021. “No man on Earth will threaten me.”

US president Donald Trump said hours later that he was “very unhappy” with the conviction. Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro to be “outstanding”.

In 2023, Brazil‘s electoral court barred the far-right politician from public office until 2030 for voicing unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.

The ruling may push lawmakers allied to Bolsonaro to seek some amnesty for him through Congress.

A full debate on sentencing is expected for Friday; after that, the former leader could face increased pressure to pick a political heir to likely challenge Lula in the general elections next year. A conviction could also compel allies to seek some amnesty for the former president through Congress.

Bolsonaro’s conviction and its durability will be a test for the strategy that Brazil’s highest-ranking judges have adopted to protect the country’s democracy against what they describe as dangerous attacks by the far right.

Their targets included social media posts that they say spread disinformation about the electoral system, as well as politicians and activists. Sending a former president and his allies to jail for planning a coup amounts to its culmination.

Brazil has suffered more than a dozen attempted coups since 1889, when it became a republic after its last emperor, Pedro II, was overthrown.

Poland’s PM says Russian drone incursion ‘wasn’t a mistake’ after Trump claim

Poland‘s prime minister Donald Tusk has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that Russian drones breaching Polish airspace might have been “a mistake”.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the US President suggested the incursion could have been unintentional while adding: “I’m not happy about anything to do with the whole situation.”

But Mr Tusk responded on Friday, saying: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”

Polish air defences and Nato aircraft sprung into action on Wednesday after 19 objects intruded Polish airspace including drones entering from Belarus. There have been no injury reports and Moscow has so far denied responsibility for the incident.

As European and Nato countries rally to Poland’s defence, the US has vowed that it will help defend Nato territory following the incursion.

The US would defend “every inch of Nato territory”, Washington’s ambassador to Nato Matthew Whitaker said.

Farage urged to explain how his partner funded £885k Clacton home

Nigel Farage is facing mounting questions about his £885,000 constituency home after an investigation called into question how the property was paid for.

The Reform UK leader has denied avoiding more than £44,000 of stamp duty on the four-bedroom house in Clacton, which includes a heated swimming pool, after it emerged it had in fact been purchased by his partner.

Mr Farage said his partner, Laure Ferrari, had paid for the home with her own funds, and was able to do so as she comes from a wealthy French family.

But a BBC investigation cast doubt on the claim, suggesting that her parents do not have the means to have made a significant contribution towards the purchase.

If Mr Farage had given Ms Ferrari the money to purchase the house, he would not have done anything illegal. But it would raise questions of hypocrisy, given that the Reform leader criticised Angela Rayner for her own failure to pay enough stamp duty when purchasing a flat in Hove – something she eventually resigned over.

“I haven’t lent money to anybody. I didn’t give her money,” he told the Mirror.

“She comes from a very successful French family and she can afford it herself. It’s convenient, it works, and she loves it there.”

Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: “There are now far too many unanswered questions about the house he stays in while in Clacton. He must urgently come clean with the public as to whether he financially contributed towards the purchase of this property.

“Misleading the public for political gain about buying a constituency home is appalling in itself. But if he deliberately put in place this arrangement to avoid paying his fair share of tax, that would be even worse.”

Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney said: “Nigel Farage has serious questions to answer over this. After spending days attacking others over their tax arrangements, he now needs to be frank and honest about his own.”

The Clacton house was purchased last November amid questions about how much time Mr Farage was spending in his constituency. Days before, he told Sky News: “I’ve just exchanged contracts on the house that I’ll be living in there – is that good enough? … I’ve bought a house in Clacton. What more do you want me to do?”

He has since admitted he was wrong to say he had bought the house, as it is owned by his partner.

Mr Farage reportedly owns four properties, including three in Kent and one in Surrey, meaning he would have paid a higher rate of stamp duty if he purchased the Clacton home.

The BBC’s investigation cast doubt on Ms Ferrari’s wealth, reporting that her father ran a haulage business in Strasbourg for many years, but the company was liquidated in 2020 and had more assets than liabilities at the time.

The flat her parents live in, in a suburb of the northeastern city, is reportedly worth around £300,000.

A consultancy set up by Ms Ferrari, meanwhile, has just £1,000 in assets, according to its latest set of accounts.

A spokesperson for Mr Farage said: “Laure Ferrari is the sole legal and beneficial owner of the property.

“It belongs solely to Laure and was purchased with funds which belong to her. All taxes were properly paid. Nigel has no financial interest in the property whatsoever.”

London’s infamous ‘Wet Wipe Island’ finally cleared of five million wipes

Approximately 5 million wet wipes have finally been removed from the infamous “Wet Wipe Island” on the River Thames.

The three-week project was the country’s first mass wet wipe removal project of its kind, which scooped up everything from towels, scarves, trousers, a car’s engine timing belt and even a set of false teeth.

The Port of London Authority, in collaboration with Thames Water and Thames21, removed around 114 tonnes of waste which had congealed into a 250m island on the foreshore of the river near Hammersmith Bridge.

Wet wipes and other non-biodegradable items are harmful to the environment because they can pollute rivers, harm wildlife and leave an unsightly mess.

In order to remove the harmful waste, the workers used an efficient “rake and shake” method. This involved two eight-tonne excavators sifting through the island, separating wet wipes and waste from the natural sediment and riverbed in order to minimise the environmental impact.

In total, almost 200 cubic metres of wet wipes containing plastic were taken away in 15 skips and disposed of responsibly.

The island, which was about the size of two tennis courts and up to 1m high in places, had changed the course of the river and potentially harmed the aquatic wildlife and ecology in the area.

Grace Rawnsley, the director of sustainability at the Port of London Authority, said that “while at times the work was pretty gross, it was well worth it to help clean the river”.

“The reaction of local communities – and of people across the country and beyond – has been really encouraging but also slightly incredulous that this work was needed in the first place,” she added.

John Sullivan from Thames Water explained: “This ‘island’ was a direct result of people flushing away wet wipes containing plastic and shows the damage that is caused by putting the wrong things down your toilet.

“Flushing a wet wipe and other non-biodegradable items away does not make them magically disappear. Blockages caused by wipes are a leading cause of pollution, and we remove an estimated 3.8 billion wipes from our network each year.”

He welcomed the government’s proposed ban on wet wipes containing plastics, and hopes it will prevent a wet wipe wasteland from ever forming again.

Organisations like Thames21 are also calling for producers to “get serious about alternatives to wet wipes” and for water companies to increase their investment in screening of plastics entering the environment.

Every year, Thames Water clears 3.8 billion wipes from its network, which it said costs £18m a year.

Thames Water recently announced a further £1.8bn investment to improve river health across London, and last year connected its £4.6bn Thames Tideway Tunnel to support the reduction of sewage discharges into the tidal Thames by 95 per cent.

I wish my mum had contacted Macmillan Cancer Support

I wasn’t at my mum’s side when she learned she had breast cancer, but that made me determined to be there the day she was getting the all-clear 18-months later. However, things didn’t go to plan that day.

Mum’s cancer journey started over a decade ago, a few months after a routine mammogram – when she developed “a pain”. She told herself it was probably nothing, because the scan she’d just had was fine. When she mentioned it to her GP – a small lump that didn’t feel quite right – she convinced herself that she was just being silly. The biopsy begged to differ.

In the list you keep in your head of the cancers you worry your mum might get, breast wasn’t that high on mine. Yes, it’s long been the number one cancer affecting women, with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that about 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year  – the risk factor only increasing with age. But my mum had other health concerns to contend with.

As a schoolgirl in swinging London, she’d been a back-of-the-bikeshed smoker, which had graduated into a lifelong habit. Lung cancer seemed like a possibility.

Mum’s also the biggest sun worshipper I know. Long before any of us had heard of SPF, she would think nothing of spending an afternoon in the garden, stretched out on a blanket, slathered in baby oil. So, given what we know now about UV radiation, I wondered about skin cancer too.

Mum went on to have a series of lumpectomies to get rid of three spots of malignant tissue. She would also have lymph nodes removed as a precaution, as well as undergo extensive chemotherapy.

For me, her diagnosis was as though a stopwatch had been started. How long might she have left? She did her best to be stoic. Which was just as well, given what government austerity measures at the time were doing to the NHS: budget cuts, hapless reorganisations, and an end to the “gold-standard” two-week referral from detection to the start of treatment.

All mum could do was wait for the brown envelopes to drop on the doormat detailing appointments at unfamiliar hospitals many miles away, sometimes after the appointment had been and gone.

If she felt let down by the bureaucracy of our health service, the same could not be said for the army of individuals involved in her care. On a human level, she found her nurses and doctors to be uniquely composed and compassionate throughout her treatment.

When the day finally came for her oncologist to tell her that all the signs of her cancer had gone, I was invited along to hold her hand. “The scans are back,” he began. “And I need to discuss your options for the next course of action.” It seemed the cancer hadn’t quite gone after all. She had fought so hard to get to this point, she was expecting good news, and was unprepared for the knockback.

But she did go on to beat cancer – and has been in remission for more than five years, which we couldn’t be more grateful for. However, should it ever come back, there’s one thing we’d do differently from the off: make a call to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Only with hindsight, did we realise how much help Macmillan would have been. Someone to provide her with a calming companion for the journey, someone to help with the cancer admin – the appointments, the prescriptions, the test results – and someone to explain what all the scans and tests were for, what the results might mean, and what to expect next.

I couldn’t always be around while mum was living with cancer, and that’s where Macmillan steps in. Now, enjoying a slice of cake at a Coffee Morning, which is raising money to fund the work they do, seems like the least I can do.

Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

The biggest issue that comes with Chelsea’s past financial issues

In long meetings at the top of the FA and Premier League about the Chelsea breaches of agent regulations, there was one issue that caused the most debate, and could still affect outcomes. That is how much a current ownership should bear the weight of a previous ownership.

It may well set a significant precedent in football, given how legally complex the sport is becoming in what is definitively now the era of the owner.

Sources state that the prevailing view within legal teams is that all of this must be put in context of how the previous regime, of Roman Abramovich, bears all the blame, and it was self-reported by Clearlake. That is why there is an expectation that it will end with financial sanctions.

That view was not unanimous, though, and it is tempered by the fact that there were other clubs on the other side of this. They missed out on signings and trophies, no matter who the owner was.

Many executives at Chelsea’s rivals remain aggravated – in some cases furious – by the situation. They feel Uefa’s £8.6m settlement in July 2023 was too light, and are impatient about the lack of resolution in the parallel Premier League investigation. The latter, like the Manchester City case, is taking its time.

Chelsea, for their part, would themselves acknowledge it’s the same club – even if different owners – which was the entire point of self-reporting. There have been references to “the sins of the father”.

They still do not expect a sporting sanction, like a points deduction or transfer ban. The ownership also believe that that would be hugely unfair, since it would essentially be punishing the wrong people: the fans, the current squad, and the current hierarchy.

The new ownership cannot be blamed for this, and believe they have done everything absolutely right, in what is really an “unprecedented situation”.

That is nevertheless where there remains some intrigue. Well-placed sources maintain that the FA had been trying to agree on a negotiated outcome for months, which would have amounted to the large fine that everyone expects. Discussions even got to the point where some on the board were lobbying for more stringent sanctions, but the majority felt any fine had to be “serious”.

That is why it has surprised some close to the process that it has actually led to charges, rather than a settlement.

Against that, Chelsea sources say their internal expectation was that this was headed for charges. Hence, the line in the club’s statement about being “pleased” with where they’ve got to. The breaches were self-reported the moment Chelsea was purchased, and they have stressed a “super collaborative” approach with football’s authorities, where every file has been passed over.

One quip that has been made is that this approach is very different to City’s.

The case is actually a mirror image of what City are accused of in the “Premier League’s big one”, if on a smaller scale. City insist on their innocence.

Whereas that case is about the accusations of overstatement of income, Chelsea’s is about understatement of expenses, with the net effect alleged to be the same. Undeclared payments kept Chelsea within Financial Fair Play (FFP) limits, and also meant the filing of inaccurate documents. The latter would represent fraud.

All of this similarly facilitated deals that allowed Chelsea to compete at a higher level. The Premier League’s investigation is expected to deal with potential FFP breaches, whereas the FA’s was about agent regulations.

Questions have already been asked as to why the Premier League are “dragging their feet” compared to the FA.

Eden Hazard, whose 2012 transfer was probably the most high-profile investigated, had been widely expected to go to Manchester United that summer. Sir Alex Ferguson was even involved in a tour of Lille’s facilities. United had agreed a transfer fee with the club and personal terms, but The Times recently reported that the deal broke down when Hazard’s agent, John Bico, demanded a payment of £1m from the club and several million more from the owners. He was notified that United absolutely would not agree to such an agreement, given it would have represented a clear breach of rules. There is no suggestion Hazard himself was aware or involved in any wrongdoing. Bico is now facing unconnected charges of financial crime in Belgium.

It has since been alleged that an offshore company belonging to Abramovich made a £6m payment to Bico via a Dubai company.

Such an example explains some of the persistent anger at rivals. Hazard was the key player in two Premier League title wins, in 2014-15 and 2016-17.

Other executives are already referencing how, in 2008, Luton Town received a 10-point deduction for irregular payments to agents.

Chelsea would again point to the fact that they have self-reported. There’s even a belief they are setting a standard in that regard, especially ahead of the introduction of a new independent regulator.

Chelsea consequently expect a fine, but an independent regulatory commission will ultimately decide.

The charges mean that that stage of the process now starts. Chelsea believe, and hope, this is all closer to the end.

GPS jamming, spy assassinations and drone incursions: Russia’s ever-growing attempts to destabilise Nato

A “huge number” of Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace for the first time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, prime minister Donald Tusk has said.

Poland scrambled both Nato and its own air defences to intercept the drones, while European leaders rallied in support and widely condemned the incursion.

Although the defensive military alliance is not yet treating the incident as an attack on one of its members, it marks the latest in Russia’s attempts to destabilise Nato (attempts of which seem to be escalating).

“Russia tests out whether the West will tolerate something which ought to be totally unacceptable and intolerable – and each time they find the answer is yes,” Keir Giles, senior fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, told The Independent.

Moscow blurs the line between peace and war, Mr Giles explained, steadily escalating semi-covert and implausibly deniable operations without getting a response. This dates back to at least 2014, when Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, stepped up activities across Europe, including the Czech depot explosion – an event described as indistinguishable from acts of war, yet met with inaction.

“So what does Russia do? It creates the environment in which they are able to get closer and closer to achieving their objectives through military aims without anybody noticing. And that’s the classic definition of salami tactics.

“You get into a state of war, a slice at a time, and that means that people don’t realise or don’t react to what’s going on.”

Nato states online that its relations with Russia are at their lowest point since the Cold War.

A spokesperson for the alliance told The Independent: “Nato’s position on Russia has been consistent and transparent throughout, and it is enshrined in the declaration of the Nato Summit in The Hague, in June, in which Russia is categorised as a ‘long-term threat’.”

The alliance was founded in 1949 by 12 states, including the UK, US, France, Canada and several western European countries as a defensive military alliance, in part to deter Soviet Expansion. Poland joined in 1999.

Here, The Independent looks at other key moments where Russia has provoked Nato

On 4 March, former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found severely ill on a bench in the English city of Salisbury.

A type of military-grade nerve agent, Novichok, developed by Russia had been applied to the door handle of his home. It was the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since Nato’s foundation, the alliance said.

After being jailed in 2006 following accusations of spying for MI6, he was pardoned and resettled in the UK in 2010.

A murder inquiry was then launched after Dawn Sturgess died from Novichok poisoning in Salisbury Hospital in July.

The UK said Russian spies were responsible for the attack, which Russia denied. Nato allies found the attack was a “clear breach of international norms and agreements”.

In October, a cyberattack targeted the offices of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, Netherlands.

Nato said a “hostile operation” was planned by the GRU but disrupted by Dutch and UK intelligence.

At the time, the OPCW, the world’s leading chemical weapons watchdog, had been investigating the Skripal poisoning.

British and Dutch officials said the aim was to disrupt computers in the building.

They identified the involvement of four Russians, believed to be MRU agents, who allegedly arrived in the Netherlands with diplomatic passports in April 2018.

“Russia must stop its reckless pattern of behaviour,” the alliance stated in response at the time.

“Nato Allies stand in solidarity with the decision by the Dutch and British governments to call out Russia on its blatant attempts to undermine international law and institutions.”

Russia said the allegations were a “rich fantasy” and “diabolical cocktail”.

The SolarWinds hack was a massive supply chain cyberattack where hackers inserted malicious code, known as Sunburst, into updates of SolarWinds’ Orion IT monitoring software.

The breach affected US government agencies, including Homeland Security and the Treasury and major companies like Microsoft, Cisco and FireEye. More than 18,000 customers installed the malicious updates.

Hackers gained access to the network in September 2019, injected Sunburst in February 2020 and were not detected in December 2020, according to SolarWinds.

US investigators attributed the attack to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Russia denied involvement.

“The United States and other allies assess that all available evidence points to the responsibility of the Russian Federation for the SolarWinds hack,” Nato stated.

On 15 November 2021, Russia conducted an anti-satellite missile test, destroying a defunct Soviet intelligence satellite in space.

The interception caused over 1,500 pieces of orbital debris, with Nasa announcing the International Space Station astronauts had to follow emergency procedures.

The US, Nasa and Nato all condemned the test, with secretary of state Antony Blinken calling it “reckless and irresponsible” and a threat to the “long-term sustainability of outer space”.

“This dangerous behaviour directly contradicts Russia’s claims to oppose the ‘weaponisation’ of space,” Nato stated at the time.

“This test caused an orbital debris field that significantly increases risk to human life and to the space-based assets of numerous nations and entities.”

Nasa administrator Bill Nelson added separately: “With its long and storied history in human spaceflight, it is unthinkable that Russia would endanger not only the American and international partner astronauts on the ISS, but also their own cosmonauts.”

Russia confirmed the test but denied allegations it threatened space security.

A cyber espionage group with ties to Russia’s GRU, known as APT28, attacked the headquarters of Germany’s Social Democratic Party in December 2022 as part of a wider campaign that started in March 2022.

Also known as Sofacy, Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm and Sednit, APT28 has been active globally since at least 2004.

The group also targeted German logistics, defence, aerospace, and IT companies, as well as foreign targets associated with Russia’s war on Ukraine, according to Germany’s Interior Ministry.

In 2024, Nato recognised that Germany and Czechia attributed the activities to APT28.

“Allies also note with concern that the same threat actor targeted other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators and other entities across the Alliance, including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden,” it stated online.

Earlier this month, the plane carrying EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen was reportedly jammed while travelling to Bulgaria on a four-day tour of EU states bordering Russia.

Bulgarian authorities initially suspected Russian interference, and Nato said it was working “day and night” to prevent further jamming.

But the Bulgarian government backtracked shortly after, saying that the plane had only experienced a routine partial signal interruption and was not disrupted.

An electronic backup system allowed the plane to land without paper maps, Bulgarian authorities found, leaving Brussels officials unclear about the incident. Russian foreign ministry said the allegations were “fake and paranoia “.

Meanwhile, the bloc said it would increase its number of satellites in low orbit to enhance detection of such interference.

“Russia is jamming people’s GPS across the region, which ought to be something that’s totally unacceptable, but instead it’s being normalised,” Mr Giles told The Independent.

There have been multiple instances of alleged GPS jamming in the Baltic region, with Sweden reporting a significant increase in September and Estonia accusing Russia last year of jamming GPS devices over Baltic airspace.