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Vladimir Putin’s forces are not preparing for a ground invasion of the UK but have planned a brutal assault on critical services including the National Grid, Gavin Williamson has claimed. Mr Williamson said: “What they are looking at doing is they are going to be thinking 'How can we just cause so much pain to Britain?'. “Damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element of creating total chaos within the country.” The Cabinet minister fired the warning shot ahead of a review in which the Ministry of Defence will try to gain more money amid proposals for large scale cuts to the Armed Forces.

GETTY Russia is plotting attacks against our infrastructure that could kill 'thousands and thousands'

He revealed Russia is ready to take actions “that any other nation would see as completely unacceptable”. The Kremlin is already researching and spying on our systems to figure how to hurt the UK, he said. Outing the risk of these unconventional attacks the Cabinet member said: “The plan for the Russians won’t be for landing craft to appear in the South Bay in Scarborough and off Brighton Beach.”

The plan for the Russians won’t be for landing craft Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson

This follows warnings that the underwater cables which link much of the UK’s broadband capacity to US servers were unguarded and vulnerable to Russian attack. Three underwater natural gas lines and four electricity interconnectors allow the UK to trade energy with Europe and supply power to three million homes. A further five million homes are set to rely on the infrastructure under the English Channel as more connection are completed. The Defence Secretary claimed these vital connections are in Russia’s sights.

Russia displays show of strength during latest military exercise Wed, October 18, 2017 Play slideshow Mikhail Japaridze/TASS 1 of 17 A serviceman of the Russian National Guard performs

He said: “Why would they keep photographing and looking at power stations, why are they looking at the interconnectors that bring so much electricity and so much energy into our country. “They are looking at these things because they are saying these are the ways that we can hurt Britain. “If we lost our interconnectors, which would be something that we know that they are looking at, there would be three million homes without electricity. In a few years time, there will be eight million homes that would be dependent. “If you could imagine the domestic and industrial chaos that this would actually cause. What they would do is cause the chaos and then step back.

GETTY Gavin Williamson warned Russia has been testing our systems for weaknesses

“This is the real threat that I believe the country is facing at the moment.” GCHQ National Cyber Security Centre chief executive Ciaran Martin has exposed Russian hacking attacks focused on the UK’s energy infrastructure. Mr Williamson said: “What they are looking at doing is trying to spot vulnerabilities, because what they want to do is they want to know how to strike it, they want to know how they can kill infrastructure and by killing that infrastructure that means hurting Britain and the British people.” The stark warning comes as Russia claimed more US sanctions would be a “declaration of war”. Andrei Kostin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, said there was a “growing threat of military conflict” across the continent as he warned of the “dangerous” situation and heralded the start of a new arms race. Mr Kostin, chief executive of leading Russian bank VTB, said: “We are at the beginning of a new arms race.

GETTY The UK's energy infrastructure has been pinpointed as a particular area of vulnerability