Europeans warn of rising Russian sabotage but see no imminent NATO attack
UNITED NATIONS: Russia is intensifying sabotage, cyberattacks and other hybrid attacks across Europe to undermine support for Ukraine, European ministers said, while dismissing concerns that Moscow is capable of launching a direct assault on NATO.
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week, officials from countries on NATO’s eastern flank said Moscow was increasingly using drone incursions, cyberattacks, sabotage and other covert operations to sow fear, test Western resolve and weaken backing for Kyiv.
“Europe faces a fast proliferation of sabotage attacks and airspace violations,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters. “Moscow is trying to scare Europe into winding down its support for Ukraine.”
European governments increasingly see Russia’s most immediate threat not as a conventional military attack, but as a campaign of covert and deniable actions aimed at unsettling Ukraine’s allies and eroding Western unity as the war drags on.
Kallas said Russia appeared willing to take greater risks and argued the answer was to increase pressure on Moscow through tougher sanctions, including measures targeting its “shadow fleet” and military-industrial complex.
“Russia’s economy is one of its weakest parts, and we need to increase the pressure on it so that they would stop this war,” she said.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said such activity was no longer merely a threat.
“They’re not just threats; they’re actual attacks,” Sikorski told Reuters, citing arson, explosions, drone incursions and what Warsaw says was a deliberate cruise missile violation of its territory.
The Polish Army Operational Command said on Wednesday a Russian military Mi-8 helicopter made a brief incursion into its airspace from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
“Our F-16s are scrambled up almost every day now because you just never know when these drones or missiles that approach might not actually be possible,” he said.
Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Toiu told Reuters Bucharest had seen more than 100 incursions by drones or drone fragments onto its territory as Russia intensified attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure near the Danube and Black Sea.
“We do not have data to indicate we’re targeted directly, but that doesn’t change the responsibility of Russia for the risk it creates,” she said.
Romania has responded by closing Russia’s consulate in Constanta and coordinating diplomatic measures with European allies, she added.
The Kremlin consistently denies conducting sabotage operations in NATO countries or plotting any confrontation.
