UK spy chief warns Russia looking for cyber targets

A U.K. intelligence chief warns that Russia is looking for cyber targets and bringing in mercenaries to shore up its stalled military campaign in Ukraine

LONDON -- A U.K. intelligence chief warned that the Kremlin is hunting for cyber targets and bringing in mercenaries to shore up its stalled military campaign in Ukraine.

Jeremy Fleming, who heads the GCHQ electronic spy agency, praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's “information operation" for being highly effective at countering Russia's massive disinformation drive spreading propaganda about the war.

While there were expectations that Russia would launch a major cyberattack as part of its military campaign, Fleming said such a move was never a central part of Moscow's standard playbook for war.

“That’s not to say that we haven’t seen cyber in this conflict. We have — and lots of it," Fleming said in a speech in Canberra, Australia, according to a transcript released in London on Wednesday..