NATO Confident on Russia Response as Hybrid Attacks Surge — SkimNews
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Mark Rutte said NATO is capable of handling sabotage and drone incidents in Europe with strong plans in place, telling citizens of the alliance's 32 member states they could remain calm and adding, "Putin is in a bad place."
- Rutte argued the rise in hybrid incidents proves Putin is losing the war in Ukraine — now in its fifth year — and said the best response is providing more weapons to Ukraine's armed forces.
- The Danish Defence Intelligence Service issued a new assessment saying Russia is likely to intensify its hybrid campaign, including destructive cyberattacks and sabotage "that carry a high risk of casualties," and noted Russia "has become more willing to take risks."
- An Associated Press interactive map tracked hybrid incidents in NATO countries rising from 59 in March 2025 to more than 200 now.
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned last week that Russia was planning hybrid strikes using drones or rockets against European backers of Ukraine, including Poland, which Moscow would likely present as "accidental" to weaken NATO's willingness to defend a member under attack.
- The Danish agency said there is "a low but growing risk" Russia will launch a limited military attack against one or several NATO countries bordering Russia "in the coming months" — though it found no indications of an outright invasion.
- US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker countered that the current incident volume does not suggest conflict is close, saying, "We haven't reached that threshold," and cautioning against overreacting to hybrid activity.
Why it matters: The same article pairs Rutte's reassurance with Danish intelligence warning of a limited military attack risk "in the coming months" — a tension that matters operationally for Poland and the Baltic states, whose defense planners must now treat sabotage, cyber, and potential conventional probing as simultaneous contingencies rather than distant hypotheticals.
Ask SkimNews
