LONDON (AP) — A suspected terror plot at a U.S.-run military air base in England was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday.
Burnham previously said there are strong indications Iran was linked to the apparent plan last month to attack the RAF Fairford air base, which has been used by American bombers to strike Iran in the ongoing war.
Police have arrested seven men in the investigation into the alleged plot, but all suspects have been released on bail and no one has been charged so far.
Iran has denied involvement, although it has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.
“I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard," Burnham told lawmakers. "We will not tolerate these threats on our soil.”
Scores of residents near the air base were evacuated from their homes on Sept. 27 as armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area.
Police later said they had found a quantity of an accelerant — gasoline — in three vans linked to the initial five suspects who were arrested on the scene, but no explosives.
All the suspects arrested are in their 20s. Six are British nationals while one is a dual U.K.-Iranian citizen.
The U.S. pulled its bombers last week from RAF Fairford, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London, and the Pentagon said all American bombers at the facility had been redeployed to their home bases in the U.S.
The Trump administration has said it believed the base faced Iranian threats intended to kill as many American troops and destroy as many U.S. planes as possible.
The British government allowed the U.S. military to use RAF Fairford for what it called defensive strikes on Iranian missiles and their launch sites following Iranian attacks on U.K. interests and Britain’s allies in the Gulf.
On Monday, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to express displeasure at “Iran’s continued attempts to undermine the security of the United Kingdom and international partners through its criminal networks, proxy groups and state-backed malign activity.”
It also said it added two Iranians, including the head of counterespionage operations in the Revolutionary Guard, to its sanctioned list.
Iran and allied militant groups have previously been accused of plotting or carrying out attacks on U.S., British and Jewish targets, allegedly acting through local proxies.
In a joint statement released Monday, the foreign ministers of more than two dozen Western countries condemned Iranian attacks on their territories through proxies or other means.
“Anyone who conducts hostile activities on behalf of Iran, or any other state, should know that we will take action to identify, investigate, disrupt, and prosecute these acts,” the statement said.
A B-1 bomber takes off from RAF Fairford in Fairford, England, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
FILE - A B1 bomber prepares to take off as police officers guard a checkpoint near RAF Fairford air base, in Fairford, England, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that while Ukraine is willing to halt attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure, Moscow has continued to strike his country's energy sites despite U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that the warring countries had agreed to cease such attacks.
Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum in Poland, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had been “horribly surprised” that Moscow struck a power plant in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, as well as a gas production facility and a civilian gas station hours after Trump announced the purported “energy ceasefire” in the 4 1/2-year-old war.
Later on Monday, during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Zelenksyy said his government had refrained from striking Russian energy sites since Trump’s announcement Sunday, and was ready to honor an energy ceasefire as “a good first step” toward closing the war.
But, he said, "I’m not sure that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is ready."
“Even after yesterday’s messages from (Trump) ... Putin attacked our gas infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said. “When we speak about energy ceasefire, it means only one thing: that they don’t attack our energy infrastructure and we don’t respond on their energy infrastructure.”
Trump’s brief social media post Sunday offered few details but said the energy ceasefire took effect immediately, adding: “Do not break it!” On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t say whether Russia had agreed to such a ceasefire, saying only: “Contacts are ongoing."
Trump previously announced a similar agreement on ceasing energy strikes that did not come to fruition. In a social media post on Sept. 14, he said both countries had agreed “not to hit” each other’s energy infrastructure, but offered no details on that proposal either.
Russia has used attacks on energy facilities in order to deny Ukrainian civilians power, heat and running water during the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter," and fear Russia could ramp up such attacks as cold weather approaches.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has launched strikes against Russian energy sites like oil refineries, sometimes deep within Russian territory. That's prompted Trump to blame Zelenskyy for record U.S. diesel prices — rather than the U.S.-led war in Iran — and to strike a deal with Putin on Friday to import diesel from Russia in an attempt to bring fuel prices down ahead of U.S. midterm elections.
Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Zelenskyy pushed back on Trump's claims that Ukrainian strikes in Russia were driving up fuel prices, saying: “Everybody understands that the prices on diesel (don't) depend on our attacks on diesel in Russia. Everybody understands that it depends on the blocking (of the) Strait of Hormuz.”
The European Union’s top diplomat on Monday welcomed the prospect of a pause in energy strikes on Ukraine, but said she sees no sign that Russia is willing to respect it.
“We haven’t yet seen that ... Russia will stick to it,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Luxembourg. “Personally, I would also welcome that the ceasefire would include people not being killed, not only energy.”
Trump's deal with Putin to purchase diesel from Russia dismayed officials in the U.S., Ukraine and around Europe. A bipartisan group of six U.S. senators, including four Republicans, called on the Trump administration on Sunday to “immediately reverse course” on the deal, saying the U.S. should “not provide Putin with a financial lifeline” while Russia is killing Ukrainian civilians.
Kallas also pushed back on Trump's comments on Saturday that it was time for Ukraine to get a new president and that Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war. She said that now is not the time to hold elections in Ukraine, at least not without a ceasefire.
On Monday, Zelenskyy said holding elections in Ukraine was impossible during war time, especially with new Russian tactics involving attacks day and night. He added, however, that he would be ready to work toward doing so if Ukraine secured a full ceasefire lasting at least 60 days.
In response, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said in a statement that in case of a Ukrainian election, Putin would be ready to halt strikes on Ukraine “specifically on election day,” and that Kyiv only wanted a 60-day ceasefire “to gather their strength, heal their wounds, and continue the war.”
Two people were injured in Russian daytime strikes on Kyiv on Monday, according to the city's military administration, while falling debris from Russian attacks sparked a fire in a private residential building in the capital's Darnytskyi district.
Debris also fell in an open area near private residential buildings in the Solomianskyi district, and on a warehouse building in the Darnytskyi district, with emergency services dispatched to the scene.
A Russian drone attack on the village of Pisochyn in the Kharkiv district on Sunday evening killed three people and injured nine others, including children, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office. Investigators said the attack struck a densely populated area near apartment buildings and grocery stores and sparked a fire.
Ukrainian air defense forces shot down or suppressed 89 of 121 Russian drones overnight Monday, Ukraine’s Air Force said in a Telegram post. The attack involved one Kh-59 guided air-to-surface missile and 76 jet-powered Shahed-type drones, the statement said.
Strikes were recorded at 15 locations in Ukraine, while debris from downed drones fell at four locations.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday said its air defenses overnight intercepted 151 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions as well as the illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea.
In a separate statement, the ministry said its forces overnight carried out drone strikes on Ukraine’s port infrastructure and a bulk carrier heading to Ukraine's port city of Odesa with military cargo on board.
Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
People watch Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a large screen as he speaks at the Warsaw Security Forum in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Attila Husejnow)
An injured man collects his personal belongings in front of his house destroyed in a Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Cars burn after a Russian strike on a residential neighbourhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
A rescue worker puts out a fire at residential houses destroyed in a Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Rescue workers put out a fire of residential houses destroyed in a Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
An injured man collects his personal belongings in front of his house destroyed in a Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
