This kind of action is risky, no doubt. And actionists are definitely being charged with more than vandalism here.

The UK has introduced a whole raft of draconian new anti-protest laws specifically targeted at eco and anti-war groups while also essentially outlawing historically successful legal defenses at trial. They're also increasingly using terrorism legislation to go after activists, even when they know the charges won't stick, in order to give them impossible bail conditions that they can then claim they've broken them and impose prison sentences without trial.

For some people that's having a radicalising effect rather than a chilling one:

Another factor that steered my STS contact towards unaccountable sabotage was the increasingly draconian punishments the British state was dishing out to peaceful protesters. “Just Stop Oil’s campaign of blocking roads and disrupting sports events really boosted the signal – put the words just-stop-oil in every mind in the country,” they enthuse. “But the prosecutions and prison sentences have been ridiculous. If I’m going to go down and do time, I want to cause the maximum amount of disruption in the time I have, and that means covert actions.”