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On 18 July 2025, the UK announced sanctions against three GRU units and 18 military intelligence officers over what it described as a sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity. The government connected part of that campaign to the earlier targeting of Yulia Skripal’s device, but the cyber targeting and the 2018 poisoning attempt were separate operations attributed to different GRU units.
What did the UK announce in July 2025?
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said the measures targeted three GRU units and 18 military intelligence officers. Its announcement named the 161st Specialist Training Centre (TsPS) and Unit 29155, as well as individuals including Yuriy Denisov, Vitaly Shevchenko, Ivan Yermakov, Aleksey Lukashev, Sergey Vasyuk, Andrey Baranov, Sergey Morgachev and Artem Malyshev. The release also presented new evidence concerning existing designations for Units 74455 and 26165.
The announcement described activity extending beyond the Skripal case: cyber operations supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and reconnaissance connected to the Mariupol Theatre. The unit and individual details are the UK government’s account of the designations and alleged activity, not independent proof of attribution.
How were the cyber operations connected to the Skripal case?
The UK said that, five years before the 2018 attempt to murder Yulia and Sergei Skripal with Novichok in Salisbury, GRU-linked actors targeted Yulia Skripal’s device using X-Agent. That makes the earlier digital targeting relevant to the broader story, but it does not mean the cyber operation was the poisoning attempt.
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The UK profile attributes different roles to different units
- Unit 26165: The UK profile identifies personnel from this unit with the historic targeting of Yulia Skripal’s emails.
- Unit 29155: The profile attributes the 2018 attempted murder to this unit.
- Units 26165 and 74455: The profile describes efforts by personnel from these units to interfere with investigations.
This account links activity across GRU units; it does not establish that the same people carried out both the cyber targeting and the physical attack. The UK’s updated GRU profile, last updated on 13 July 2026, is the source for these unit-level attributions.
How does the July 2025 action differ from later UK sanctions?
Later announcements concerned separate target sets and activities. Their counts refer to each government-announced package, not necessarily unique people or entities across packages.
| Date | Package and targets | Activity or context cited |
|---|---|---|
| 18 July 2025 | Three GRU units and 18 military intelligence officers, according to the FCDO. | Cyber activity, the earlier targeting of Yulia Skripal, operations connected to Ukraine and reconnaissance around the Mariupol Theatre. |
| 4 December 2025 | A further GRU action, including eight cyber military intelligence officers, according to the FCDO. | Announced alongside publication of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry’s final report. The government said the Inquiry concluded that the GRU was responsible for the operation that led to Sturgess’s death after President Putin authorised the poisoning operation. |
| 6 July 2026 | A separate UK Chemical Weapons regime package targeting two institutions and individuals. | Research, development and production connected to Epibatidine and Novichoks; Parliament’s statement separately recalled the Salisbury attack and Sturgess’s death. |
| 13 July 2026 | A joint UK-EU cyber sanctions package targeting 24 individuals and entities, according to the FCDO. | The UK and EU attributed an attack on Poland’s energy grid to Russia’s FSB Centre 16. This was a separate attribution, not a GRU or Skripal measure. |
What is established—and what should readers verify?
The public announcements establish what the UK government designated and alleged; they do not, by themselves, provide an independent adjudication of every intelligence attribution. The central distinction is between a reported cyber operation against Yulia Skripal’s device and the later physical attack, which the UK profile assigns to different GRU units.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Sanctions designations can change. The July 2025 announcement should not be treated as a complete or necessarily current list: check the live UK sanctions list for an individual or unit’s present designation status.
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