Starting mid-September 2025, Russian-linked drones, some armed, entered the airspace of Poland, Romania, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands, causing closures at key airports such as Copenhagen and Brussels, and prompting military responses including Poland scrambling fighter jets and Dutch forces attempting to intercept near Volkel Air Base. These incursions formed part of a new Russian hybrid warfare campaign relying on maritime-based 'shadow fleet' vessels for launching drones from offshore locations, complicating attribution and increasing operational reach. The shadow fleet consists of hundreds of Russian-controlled third-party vessels engaged in sanction evasion and covert operations, with credible reports of Russian military personnel aboard. France detained a Chinese captain of one such tanker, Boracay, post-drone incursion near Denmark. British Defense Secretary John Healy reported a Russian surveillance ship using lasers against UK military pilots in recent weeks, highlighting escalating seaborne hybrid warfare tactics. Russia’s history of maritime intelligence, sabotage, and sabotage training underpins these operations, now rejuvenated under Putin’s regime with drone warfare enabling significant disruption of European civil aviation and military infrastructure across multiple NATO states. European governments are responding with increased counterintelligence, interdiction efforts, and multinational antidrone cooperation. However, Russia's use of offshore ships for drone launches and sanctions evasion presents a difficult challenge to Western defenses.

Starting mid-September 2025, Russian-linked drones, some armed, entered the airspace of Poland, Romania, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands, causing closures at key airports such as Copenhagen and Brussels, and prompting military responses including Poland scrambling fighter jets and Dutch forces attempting to intercept near Volkel Air Base. These incursions formed part of a new Russian hybrid warfare campaign relying on maritime-based 'shadow fleet' vessels for launching drones from offshore locations, complicating attribution and increasing operational reach. The shadow fleet consists of hundreds of Russian-controlled third-party vessels engaged in sanction evasion and covert operations, with credible reports of Russian military personnel aboard. France detained a Chinese captain of one such tanker, Boracay, post-drone incursion near Denmark. British Defense Secretary John Healy reported a Russian surveillance ship using lasers against UK military pilots in recent weeks, highlighting escalating seaborne hybrid warfare tactics. Russia’s history of maritime intelligence, sabotage, and sabotage training underpins these operations, now rejuvenated under Putin’s regime with drone warfare enabling significant disruption of European civil aviation and military infrastructure across multiple NATO states. European governments are responding with increased counterintelligence, interdiction efforts, and multinational antidrone cooperation. However, Russia's use of offshore ships for drone launches and sanctions evasion presents a difficult challenge to Western defenses.