While Russia escalates deadly strikes in Ukraine amid a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ending the war there, its hostility toward Europe has persisted with recent attacks against dams and satellite navigation systems, officials and experts say. They show how vulnerable the continent remains to sabotage.
Russia’s goal is to destabilize Europe, a report released on Tuesday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies said. Attacks on critical infrastructure — including transportation systems, financial networks and military bases — are at the heart of that effort.
Russia is also expanding its mapping of undersea cables and pipelines near the Arctic, potentially forcing allies in northern Europe to protect them by pulling military resources from other conflicts, a senior NATO military official said. That would almost certainly include the war in Ukraine.
“While Russia has so far failed to achieve its primary aim, European capitals have struggled to respond to Russian sabotage operations and have found it challenging to agree a unified response, coordinate action, develop effective deterrence measures and impose sufficient costs on the Kremlin,” the report said.
So-called hybrid attacks in Europe escalated after NATO sent weapons and military intelligence to defend Ukraine from Russia’s invasion. Hybrid attacks, also known as “gray zone attacks,” are hostile actions that are designed to evade culpability, and that generally stop just short of inflicting enough damage to trigger a forceful response.
The report suggests that the pace of Russia’s hybrid attacks is slowing after peaking last year. Yet their results — canceled flights, exploding packages and cutting electricity and internet traffic — highlight how disruptive and even dangerous they can be.
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