The mystery electric substation fires that ‘bear the hallmarks of Russian sabotage’: How spate of suspicious blazes are ‘straight out of playbook’ of Putin’s GRU spy wing

A mysterious spate of electrical substation infernos that have swept across the UK could potentially be the work of Russian saboteurs, a British spymaster has hinted.

Colonel Philip Ingram, a former officer in British military intelligence, said Putin’s GRU spy agency might be ‘testing the water’ with attacks on key infrastructure.

It comes after a series of suspicious blazes ravaged substations close to hospitals, military bases, critical transport hubs and major sports stadiums nationwide.

Ex-spook Col Ingram claimed the targeting of such power sites was something that comes ‘straight out of the playbook’ of Russia’s secretive GRU. 

‘There is a possibility what we’re seeing with this spate of fires is tied in with some sabotage operation potentially by Russian GRU. You can’t rule it out,’ he warned.

‘This is something within Russian military intelligence remit to identify and work out how to attack and potentially test those theories.’

Meanwhile, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk yesterday accused Russian special services of ordering an arson attack that nearly destroyed a shopping centre in the country’s capital Warsaw last year. 

Russia has denied any involvement in the arson attack and accused Poland of Russophobia. 

The fire in Heathrow resulted in unprecedented scenes, grounding flights for most of the day and exposing a major vulnerability in the country’s infrastructure. Dramatic images show flames tearing through the substation as smoke billows into the night sky 

A series of other fires nationwide have followed at electrical substations close to hospitals, military bases and transport hubs. Pictured are fire crews in London attempting to quell the inferno at a substation in Paddington on April 29

In March, Heathrow’s North Hyde substation was destroyed when a fire ripped through it, knocking out power for 12 hours and causing international travel mayhem.

Some 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted by the closure and left 67,000 homes without power. The disaster proved a national embarrassment and highlighted the vulnerability of one of Britain’s main travel hubs.

The chaos saw counter-terrorism police initially deployed amid fears the blaze at the National Grid-owned station was a deliberate attack.

Five days after the inferno at the 60-year-old transformer, the Metropolitan Police declared it had found ‘no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature’. It’s position has not changed, MailOnline understands.

A probe is still being carried out, with an interim report by National Energy System Operator last week warning the cause of the fire at the facility ultimately remains unknown but that they have ruled out any suspicious cause. 

Experts insist substation fires are ‘rare’ but ‘not unheard of’.

But analysis by MailOnline has revealed a number of suspicious incidents taking place in the days and weeks after the Heathrow outage, which have concerned Col Ingram. 

On April 30 in Glasgow, a huge fire ripped through an electrical substation in Taransay Street. The road backs onto defence giant BAE Systems’ Govan shipbuilding facility – which is constructing the next fleet of Type 26 frigates for the Royal Navy. 

No cause for the blaze has been announced, with police now investigating it. 

The Govan shipyard is deemed a critical site for UK defence, with Col Ingram saying it could be a prime target for hostile state actors or foreign intelligence officials. 

In another blaze, a fire ripped through a substation in Taransay Street, Glasgow on April 30 

The road backs onto defence giant BAE Systems’ Govan shipbuilding facility. Pictured are emergency crews at the scene 

The shipyard is responsible for building the Royal Navy’s new multi-billionaire fleet of Type 26 frigates. Pictured is new warship HMS Glasgow as it is maneuvered onto a barge at the BAE Govan shipyard

Pictured is Colonel Philip Ingram, a former officer in British military intelligence 

A day earlier, on April 29, another dramatic inferno ravaged a substation in Paddington, central London. 

Shocking photos showed a ferocious wall of flames bursting high into the sky from the facility, in Victoria Passage in Aberdeen Place. 

Eighty residents had to be evacuated from a neighbouring tower block amid fears the flames could engulf it.

The fire was less than a mile from St Mary’s Hospital which treats thousands of people a year, and Paddington railway station – Britain’s second busiest station. The blaze was also close to the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground. 

And on Sunday, two parts of the UK were affected by major substation fires. 

In Exeter, some 400 homes were left without power after a fire ripped through a power hub in Fore Street. 

The substation is a few hundred feet from the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, one of the region’s busiest hospitals treating about 90,000 patients a year.

About 250 miles north in Liverpool, another substation in Lower Breck Road bursts into flames. It is based a few hundred feet from the Anfield football stadium – home to Premier League champions, Liverpool.

Firefighters are seen on April 29 tackling a blaze at an electrical substation in Paddington 

Emergency services had to evacuate dozens of people from a nearby tower block, while some 100 firefighters fought the blaze in Paddington, London

Thick smoke engulfs the street in Maida Vale, London, following a fire at a substation in Paddington on April 29

In Exeter, a fire ravaged an electrical substation on Sunday, with black smoke seen billowing high into the sky 

Government sources last night insisted there was ‘no evidence’ that foreign interference was involved in the spate of blazes – which were likely ignited instead due to ‘technical issues’.

Col Ingram said the chance of some of the fires being linked to Kremlin spies was unlikely – but not impossible. 

‘It’s more likely to be a coincidence than hostile intelligence services but we can’t rule it out,’ he said. ‘Those investigating these fires need to look at it with an open mind.

‘Even if they can’t find evidence of a hostile state or of sabotage, that doesn’t mean it’s not necessarily them. They will be very good at hiding these things and that evidence.’

Col Ingram added during his time in working in the British Army, he had planned similar operations to disrupt enemy power supplies ahead of bombing runs.

‘This is the sort of planning any intelligence organisation will do and do very carefully,’ he said.

‘When the Heathrow fire occurred, I was one of the many who thought this was a little too coincidental and too good. It’s right out the Russian GRU playbook; identifying things that are relatively unprotected and finding a way of causing damage to them.

He continued: ‘I remember planning for bombing runs and we needed to shut down an enemy power facility.

‘We targeted the substation. There was a lot of planning that went into this. We targeted bespoke equipment or things that would take months to repair.

In this photo provided by Matthew Muirhead, a fire is seen at the North Hyde electrical substation near the Heathrow Airport in London on March 21 

Firefighters douses flames of a fire that broke out at a substation supplying power to Heathrow Airport in Hayes, west London

Pictured is the aftermath at the Heathrow substation inferno, where firefighters used foam to extinguish the blaze 

Pictured is a substation fire in West Bridgford, Nottingham, on March 23 

White smoke could be seen billowing into the air at another blaze at an electrical substation in Lancing, West Sussex on March 3

‘We used specialised munitions as they didn’t cause large damage or casualties. But it took out a key component that effectively fried itself. We knew that this item was only built in a handful of places in the world and lead time to build it was several months.’

Russia has been accused of carrying out a number of sabotage attacks across European Nato countries in recent years. 

According to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), they nearly tripled between 2023 and 2024, after quadrupling between 2022 and 2023.

Transportation and critical infrastructure are often the prime targets for such sabotage, the CSIS claimed. 

About 27 per cent of the known attacks were against transportation targets, another 27 per cent hit government sites, and 21 per cent were against critical infrastructure, including the electricity grid, pipelines and undersea fiber-optic cables, the think-tank added.

In November Britain’s foreign spy chief accused Russia of waging a ‘staggering reckless campaign’ of sabotage across European.  

Speaking in Paris, Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said: ‘We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre-rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine.

Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin has been accused of using the GRU to wage a ‘staggeringly reckless’ campaign of sabotage across Europe 

Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said countries supporting Ukraine had been targeted by Russian saboteurs 

‘The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.’

The view was backed by Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, who warned Russia’s intelligence agency has been on a relentless mission to create ‘sustained mayhem on British and European streets’.

During his annual security update on the threats posed by Britain, Mr McCallum said GRU agents had carried out ‘arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness’.

‘The UK’s leading role in supporting Ukraine means we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin’s regime, and we should expect to see continued acts of aggression here at home,’ MI5’s director-general warned. 

‘The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we’ve seen arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness.’

MailOnline has approached the Government and London Fire Brigade for comment.