Britain is living “between peace and war” as Vladimir Putin ramps up attempts to “bully, fearmonger and manipulate”, the new head of MI6 has warned.

Blaise Metreweli said the Kremlin will “export” chaos as Moscow continues “dragging out” peace negotiations in Ukraine.

And Ms Metreweli, in her first public engagement as “C”, said Russia is “testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war”.

The first female chief of the Secret Intelligence Service vowed that her spies would hit back by “tapping into – if you like – our historical, SOE instincts.”

The SOE was a covert spy network which engaged in guerilla warfare during World War 2.

The head of MI6 declared: “Our world is more dangerous and contested now than for decades. Conflict is evolving and trust is eroding, just as new technologies spur both competition and dependence. We are being contested from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom, and even our brains as disinformation manipulates our understanding of each other and ourselves.

“We are now operating in a space between peace and war.”

Ms Metreweli, speaking ahead of crunch talks on Ukraine in Berlin, warned Britain will also face the “menace of an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia”.

Donald Trump’s negotiators want Ukraine to give up additional territory in the east of the country after Kyiv said it was willing to renounce its ambition to join Nato in return for credible security guarantees.

Ms Metreweli said of the Ukraine war and the threat to the rest of Europe: “I find it harrowing that hundreds of thousands have died, with the toll mounting every day because of Putin’s historical distortions and his compromised desire for respect.

“He is dragging out negotiations and shifting the cost of war onto his own population. Russia is testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war. It’s important to understand their attempts to bully, fearmonger and manipulate, because it affects us all.

“I am talking about, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, drones buzzing airports and bases, aggressive activity in our seas, above and below the waves, state-sponsored arson and sabotage, propaganda and influence operations that crack open and exploit fractures within societies.”

Revealing how MI6 will hit back, Ms Metreweli said the agency will look to the historical role of the SOE, which was formed by Sir Winston Churchill in 1940.

It waged a guerrilla war with local resistance fighters.

Its most successful missions include destroying the Norsk Hydro Plant in Norway in 1943, which was making ingredients for a Nazi nuclear bomb.

The MI6 chief said: “At an operational level, we will sharpen our edge and impact with audacity, tapping into – if you like – our historical, SOE instincts.”

But the head of the Secret Intelligence Service also spoke of the alarming growth in power of social media companies, with information warfare set to intensify over the coming years.

She said: “The foundations of trust in our societies are eroding. Information, once a unifying force, is increasingly weaponised. Falsehood spreads faster than fact, dividing communities and distorting reality. We live in an age of hyper-connection yet profound isolation.

“The algorithms flatter our biases and fracture our public squares. And as trust collapses, so does our shared sense of truth – one of the greatest losses a society can suffer.”

She added: “In an age of uncertainty, one constant remains: the choices made by human beings still determine the shape of the world. Yes, technology can illuminate possibilities, but information requires judgement, complexity demands clarity and only people can decide which path to follow.”

Russian bot-farms are widely known to try and exploit domestic situations, including, for example, the Southport atrocity. Fake news that killer Axel Rudakubana was a small boat migrant spread in the hours after the attack, with Russia blamed for fanning the flames of discontent.

Outlining some of the weapons of the future, “C”, who previously held the role of “Q”, made famous by the James Bond franchise, revealed some will be “science-fiction-like” tools.

She said: “AI-powered robots and drones are brilliant for scaled manufacturing but devastating on the battlefield.

“Discoveries that cure disease can also create new weapons. And as states race for tech supremacy, or as some algorithms become as powerful as states, those hyper-personalised tools could become a new vector for conflict and control”.

“The defining challenge of the twenty-first century is not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom. Our security, our prosperity and our humanity depend on it. Our world is being remade. And for the first time, we are all at the heart of it.

“The response to the increasing risks we face won’t be delivered by the UK intelligence community alone. Wider society has a role to play. That includes work hat takes place in schools across the country so our children don’t get duped by information manipulation. Let’s all check sources, consider evidence and be alive to those algorithms that trigger intense reactions, like fear”.