In 2024 and 2025, Russia has been conducting extensive hybrid warfare against Europe, involving sabotage, drone incursions, undersea cable destruction, assassination attempts, and subversion campaigns across several countries including Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium, France, and the UK. Western officials and analysts link these activities to Kremlin-directed intelligence agencies, particularly the GRU under Andrei Averyanov's Department of Special Tasks, using improvised networks of criminals and proxies to conduct operations with plausible deniability. Notable incidents include foiled assassination plots against a German weapons executive, explosives sent via parcel services, drone flights over Polish, Danish, and Belgian military areas, the destruction of undersea Baltic cables, arson in London by Wagner mercenary recruits, and vandalism of Jewish memorials in Paris attributed to Russian foreign interference aiming to sow societal divisions and weaken European unity. NATO has responded with measures such as launching Operation Baltic Sentry to monitor rogue ships threatening undersea infrastructure and plans for anti-drone defenses by 2027. Experts warn the West needs a more unified approach to counter this constant, covert warfare below the threshold of open conflict, which threatens critical infrastructure, societal trust, and democratic stability across Europe.

In 2024 and 2025, Russia has been conducting extensive hybrid warfare against Europe, involving sabotage, drone incursions, undersea cable destruction, assassination attempts, and subversion campaigns across several countries including Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium, France, and the UK. Western officials and analysts link these activities to Kremlin-directed intelligence agencies, particularly the GRU under Andrei Averyanov's Department of Special Tasks, using improvised networks of criminals and proxies to conduct operations with plausible deniability. Notable incidents include foiled assassination plots against a German weapons executive, explosives sent via parcel services, drone flights over Polish, Danish, and Belgian military areas, the destruction of undersea Baltic cables, arson in London by Wagner mercenary recruits, and vandalism of Jewish memorials in Paris attributed to Russian foreign interference aiming to sow societal divisions and weaken European unity. NATO has responded with measures such as launching Operation Baltic Sentry to monitor rogue ships threatening undersea infrastructure and plans for anti-drone defenses by 2027. Experts warn the West needs a more unified approach to counter this constant, covert warfare below the threshold of open conflict, which threatens critical infrastructure, societal trust, and democratic stability across Europe.