Russia is recruiting saboteurs across Europe through Telegram by monitoring pro-Kremlin channels to identify potential "low-level agents" and offering small payments for tasks like photographing military sites or starting fires, Germany's intelligence chief warned during a parliamentary hearing of the country's intelligence chiefs in the Bundestag.

Europe is living through a period of "ice cold peace" that "could at any moment turn into open confrontation", the head of foreign intelligence service BND, Martin Jäger, warned at the event.

"We must prepare ourselves for further escalations," he emphasised.

Green MP Konstantin von Notz echoed that concern. "The threats posed today by espionage and sabotage from authoritarian states have long since become a very serious security issue, von Notz said.

He urged the government to "finally take the assessments of the intelligence services seriously" and to respond to the growing dangers "with determined action under the rule of law."

President Vladimir Putin speaks at a meeting with officers of Russia's military intelligence GRU in Moscow, 2 November, 2018 AP Photo

Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has stepped up its hybrid warfare against the West – cutting undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, drone sightings, parcel bombs and carrying out further acts of espionage and sabotage. Some acts of this hybrid campaign can be traced back to so-called "low-level agents".

These individuals, often recruited via social media for sm