European governments warned this week that Russia is waging a 'hybrid war' — using sabotage, disinformation and other below-the-radar attacks instead of open combat.
For months, officials described suspicious fires, drones and outages as vaguely "hybrid" without saying who was responsible.
A drone spotted over Berlin's main airport, BER, forced air traffic controllers to halt all flights before reopening the airspace.
This week, Western officials called Russia's actions against Europe — cyberattacks, sabotage, and disinformation — 'hybrid warfare,' a term for tactics that fall short of open war.
This week French officials, European spy chiefs and other reports warned that Russia is preparing more direct action against NATO countries.
In the same week, Italy warned that Russia's campaign of sabotage and disruption against Europe is becoming more dangerous, the European Union's defence chief called for a strong response, and a report described Russia running a messaging campaign to win support from developing nations.
A joint investigation by Deutsche Welle and other European broadcasters found that a Colombian man who set fire to Prague buses in June 2024 was recruited online by a Cuban working for Russian intelligence.
Finland has joined a nuclear deterrence deal with France that lets French fighter jets use Finnish airfields, but without the shared-defense commitments that NATO membership normally requires.
German security officials have identified two suspects, with high probability, behind a drone flying over Leipzig/Halle airport, according to leaked files reported by Welt am Sonntag.
Germany's police will train in Ukraine against Russian hybrid warfare — tactics like sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation used without declaring war outright.
This week Finland finished a 200-kilometre border fence, Latvia's ban on Russian and Belarusian books and goods took effect, and Germany and Russia expelled diplomats after a drone was found near a plane at a German airport.
German police are investigating an overnight fire at a substation in central Berlin and a cut fence at another substation in the west.