Vladimir Putin is targeting Europe to try and create “mass casualty events”, an expert has warned.

Relations between Moscow and the West have completely deteriorated since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Recently, the Russian despot and his allies in Moscow threatened to retaliate when the UK and US allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with their missiles.

But experts believe Russia is already attacking Britain and other allies of Ukraine in Europe.

Keir Giles, senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, and the author of ‘Who Will Defend Europe?’, cited one example that shows Putin is more than willing to kill people in Europe if necessary.

He told the Telegraph: “It’s impossible to tell how widespread this is, because we only see what comes to light – and some of what comes to light is by accident. Some countries are very keen to keep a lid on it.

“We ought to be concerned that Russia is willing to consider causing mass-casualty events in Europe, as evidenced by the airliner plot. That was the one element missing in the campaigns of murder sabotage in previous decades. And that’s a worry.”

Mr Giles was referring to the plane crash near Vilnius, Lithuania, last week.

One crew member was killed when the cargo plane crashed, skidded into a house, and then burst into flames.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hinted at suspicion that the crash could have come due to Russian sabotage, although Lithuania denied this was the case.

But Western security officials have alleged that the planting of incendiary devices on planes headed for the UK and Germany in July were part of a covert Russian operation.

A DHL warehouse in Birmingham went up in flames having been allegedly planted on a package being flown into the UK.

MI5 director general Ken McCallum said in a speech last month that Russia is trying to cause “mayhem” in the UK.

He said: “We should expect to see continued acts of aggression here at home.

“The GRU [Russia’s military intelligence service] 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.”