Russia plans hybrid attacks on EU capitals, intelligence agencies on high alert – Colonel Grant

He shared the information on Espreso TV.

“To what extent will the French president, the British king, President Biden, or perhaps his successor be willing to fully commit to supporting Ukraine? The situation is fairly clear that there will be, you could say, two circumstances. The first circumstance is if there is a significant breakthrough by Russia, then there will be hard questions asked across all European capitals. However, there is no fixed decision on this yet. Currently, that's evident because there are still some capitals, like the Italians, that are showing weakness on the matter because they don't feel directly threatened. So, the first consideration is if there is a major breakthrough. The second consideration, as I mentioned earlier, is if there is an attack by Russia on NATO,” the colonel noted.

According to him, the intelligence services of many European countries are now suggesting in the media that Russia is planning powerful hybrid attacks on European capitals, that is, not on Europe itself. And this may be a separate issue, as Article 5 has always been about responding to ground troop invasions.

“However, Putin seems to be focusing more on other tactics such as missiles, disrupting communications, heavy cyber warfare, and anything that could cripple the ability of European countries to support Ukraine. This hasn't triggered Article 5 yet, or even Article 4 for negotiations. Therefore, we're uncertain about how strong the collective European response would be if the war shifts in Russia's favor. Nevertheless, I am confident that something will be done because Poland, Germany, France, and Britain are all apprehensive about the situation worsening and affecting them. Currently, there are no concrete plans or decisions. There's only an acknowledgment that we may need to take more serious actions. And I believe there's not just an acknowledgment but also a readiness to take such actions,” Glenn Grant emphasized.

• The Netherlands will maintain a military presence in Lithuania as part of a NATO forward deployed battalion until the end of 2026.
• Germany is also ready to promptly deploy 35,000 trained military personnel to support its allies.