German Bundeswehr colonel states Germany was late to acknowledge Russian hybrid attacks, encompassing sabotage, disinformation, and political infiltration, urging improved societal resilience and rapid political response.

Colonel Sönke Marahrens of the Bundeswehr stated at the New Age Defence forum in Berlin on 8 June 2026 that Germany recognized Russian hybrid attacks late and only shifted politically in the last 18 to 24 months. Hybrid threats include hardware attacks such as undersea cable sabotage and drones, as well as political and judicial system infiltration, including recruitment of 'disposable agents' for sabotage. Marahrens highlighted Finland's rapid response within an hour to Baltic Sea cable damage. He emphasized that German societal resilience to hybrid warfare remains insufficient, contrasting it with Kyiv's wartime societal resilience. The Kremlin organizes large-scale hybrid attacks to discredit Kyiv and inflame internal EU conflicts. Germany supports Ukraine financially and through joint training exercises, adopting battlefield experience from Ukraine. Unidentified drones over European critical infrastructure, including Germany, have mainly a psychological effect and not a direct military impact. Marahrens argued for granting Germany's National Security Council real rapid decision-making powers to better address hybrid threats.