the times | Thursday May 26 2022 15
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makes nationalist criminal heroes of
the masses.”
Grant shares baseless suggestions
that “concentration camps” have been
set up where woman and children have
“died a painful death”, Ukraine is
covered by a network US bio-laborato-
ries “producing deadly viruses” and “a
mass genocide of the Russian-speaking
population is under way”. The Russian
foreign ministry shared the video on
Twitter.
Grant, 72, a graduate of Aberdeen
University, is the owner of a London-
registered company that is recorded as
providing “translation and interpreta-Russians don’t like this so they’ve used
their capabilities which are pretty
sophisticated to make some awkward-
ness for us,” he added.
He said much of what was known
about current Russian cyber activity
was being picked up by Ukrainian intel-
ligence rather than Nato.
Dearlove predicted that the Ukraine
conflict “is going to, as it were, change
Nato’s perception of these issues” and
was likely to force the alliance to devel-
op its joint cyber capabilities more fully
having previously left much of them to
the Anglophone Five Eyes alliance.
Stavridis agreed that there was a
“great deal of cyber activity” on the
level of personal attacks of that kind but
warned that Putin was saving
massive-scale non-deniable cyber-
attacks for a later stage of the conflict
and would seek to use them as revenge
for western sanctions.
“I think Putin is holding those back
because he wants something to play
with,” he said. “When the sanctions
really start to bite in Russia, he is going
to want at that point to use those kinds
of tools against the West to discomfort
our populations in the way that his pop-
ulations are being discomforted.
“So I think there’s another shoe to
drop on this in addition to what is
happening, I assure you, beneath the
surface of the sea.”A British actor has been identified as
the narrator of a Russian government
propaganda clip justifying the invasion
of Ukraine.
Bruce Grant, the son of a Second
World War RAF veteran, worked on the
film released on Monday by the Rus-
sian foreign ministry. It could lead to
comparisons with William Joyce, Lord
Haw-Haw, who broadcast Nazi
propaganda to Britain from Germany
during the war and was hanged in 1946.
Narrated in English, the video is pro-
moted by the Russian government as
recording the “loss of over three million
Red Army soldiers and officers” in
Ukraine during the Second World War
while “today in Ukraine the Nazis and
their fascist nationalist minions are
hailed as heroes”.
Grant’s commentary draws parallels
between the invasion of Ukraine and
the operation to overthrow Nazi rule. It
states: “In the 21st century Nazism was
not only returned to Ukraine but has
penetrated deeply into the minds of
many citizens.
“The Ukraine government calls the
Soviet warrior-liberators invaders and
Briton narrates Kremlin
video justifying invasion
tion activities”. He lives in Moscow and
is known for narrating promotional
material for the video game War Thun-
der. In one video promoting the game
Grant describes the wartime career of
his father, Flight Lieutenant Douglas
Ross Grant, an RAF engineer. He
claimed his father was denied further
promotion having uncovered a “fuel
theft scam” by his commanding officer
in Egypt.
Grant claims in an online profile to
have worked as a chauffeur to the Shah
of Iran in London in the 1960s before
emigrating to Canada where he became
a representative of Apple “at the person-
al request of Steve Jobs”, the company’s
co-founder. He moved to Russia in 1994.
He wrote on Facebook: “I do official voi-
ceovers for more than 33 studios includ-
ing Moscow‘s Hollywood”.
Gaijin Entertainment, which produ-
ces War Thunder, said: “Bruce is not our
employee and never was. He is a fa-
mous freelance voice talent that partic-
ipated in hundreds of projects like mov-
ies, documentaries, video games and ad
videos that have nothing to do with us.”
Grant could not be contacted for
comment.
War in Ukraine, pages 34-David Brown
Bruce Grant claims that “Nazism has
penetrated” the minds of UkrainiansPutin aimed cyberattack at
me, says former MI6 chief
Catherine Philp
Diplomatic CorrespondentRussia launched a cyberattack against
the ex-head of MI6, Sir Richard
Dearlove, the former spy chief has
revealed, warning that Moscow’s new
technology offensive against the West
may only just be beginning.
Dearlove revealed that he had been
“the object of a Russian disruption
operation” during the recording of the
One Decision podcast, a programme
that examines the making of decisions
that result in wider international
impact, with the former Nato supreme
commander, Admiral James Stavridis.
The former spy chief was responding
to the charge that the conflict in
Ukraine had not seen Russian cyber-
attacks unleashed on the scale that
western intelligence had previously
warned of.
He countered: “I just think that it’s
probably not been in the public domain
very much. I disagree with you... I
could give you, let’s put it like this, I have
been the object in the last three weeks
of a Russian disruption operation. I’m
not going to [go into] any detail.”
Turning to Stavridis, he said: “Jim has
had a similar experience.
“We are retired people but clearly we
are commentating on Ukraine quite a
lot in the public domain and theUniversity
rejection
for Russian
Tom BallA Russian woman who applied to study
at a London university was rejected “in
response to the situation in Ukraine”.
Elena Ledneva made an application
to study for a master’s course in hospi-
tality at the University of West London
(UWL) in April, having gone on an
open day and met course leaders.
This week, however, she received an
email telling her that the university
would “not be in a position to process
the application further” because of the
war in Ukraine. The email said that this
was “as per university policy”.
“I was shocked and thought it was
totally unreasonable,” said Ledneva, 33,
who came to Britain with her husband
and son last year hoping to start a
career in the hospitality sector.
She said: “I am not at all supportive of
this war but at the same time I don’t see
how rejecting me from a master’s
course helps the situation.”
Shortly after Putin’s invasion, UWL
released a statement saying that its
thoughts were with “those within
Russia courageously opposing the con-
flict”. In its list of general principles, the
university, based in Ealing, said that it
would “admit candidates who have the
potential to succeed on their chosen
course regardless of background”.
A spokesman for UWL said that the
email was sent in error due to an “inter-
nal miscommunication” and that her
application was still being processed.
They said: “Senior admissions staff
have since reached out to this prospec-
tive student to convey our sincere apol-
ogies for any distress caused. UWL’s
admissions policies and procedures do
not include any restrictions on univers-
ity admissions based on nationality.”
Ledneva said that she did not believe
the university’s claim and that she did
not know if she would take a place at
UWL, were she to be offered one.Charles visits
refugee centre
in Bucharest
The Prince of Wales has spoken out
about the “nightmare situation” in
Ukraine during a trip to Romania to
meet refugees.
Charles was joined by Margareta, the
head of the deposed Romanian royal
family and a distant relative, for an
unannounced tour of a donation centre
for refugees in the capital Bucharest.
More than a million Ukrainians have
crossed the border into Romania since
the Russian invasion.
The prince told a group of families:
“We feel for Ukraine, a nightmare
situation. Keep praying.”
Charles, who at one point clasped
hands with a little boy, added: “I’m full
of admiration for the Ukrainian
people.”
He was visiting the Romexpo dona-
tion centre.
Lilia Nimych, 33, an entrepreneur
who produced a range of pet products
in her home city of Bila Tserkva in
central Ukraine, fled with her daugh-
ters Emily, six, and Nilana, 14.
She said: “I’m so happy we came here,
we’ve received so much help. All we saw
from windows was bombs dropping,
that’s why we left. We saw bombs
coming down on our city — scary.”
After hearing Charles’s words of
support she said: “It makes us brave and
gives us the power to stand tall.”
Charles chatted briefly to Stephen
Noble, a minister and major with the
Scarborough branch of the Salvation
Army, who for the past month has been
working in Romania. The organisation
has been providing £10 vouchers to
Ukrainians aged under 18 for their fam-
ilies to spend on goods they need.
Noble said: “I guess always we’re try-
ing to bring dignity to people who are in
tough situations, here we’ve got a lot of
provision for clothing and provision for
food and hygiene, this gives people the
dignity to use the voucher in supermar-
kets, or pharmacies, or even for fuel.”
Catch a falling star The 15-strong Circus Abyssinia troupe bring their show to the Underbelly Festival at London’s Earl’s
Court. Inspired by Derartu Tulu, the Ethiopian Olympics legend, the display features acrobatics, contortion and fire-jugglingIMAGEPLOTTER/ALAMY