In May 2025, the Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum in Bucharest convened policymakers, experts, and civil society leaders to discuss hybrid warfare challenges facing Eastern Europe. A key panel hosted by Friedrich Naumann Foundation Romania focused on Russia's deliberate use of migration as a geopolitical weapon amid its war on Ukraine. Russian and Belarusian strategies facilitate migrant flows from the Middle East towards EU borders such as Lithuania, Poland, and Finland to destabilize EU and NATO by overwhelming border security and fueling political divisions. Panelists emphasized the scale of displacement with 13 million Ukrainians displaced, 3.7 million internally, marking Europe's largest displacement crisis since WWII. The forum stressed that migration itself is not a threat, but its manipulation erodes democratic values and social cohesion. Speakers called for coordinated European and NATO responses combining humanitarian aid with enhanced border intelligence, effective integration policies, combating disinformation, and strengthening resilience against hybrid threats.

In May 2025, the Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum in Bucharest convened policymakers, experts, and civil society leaders to discuss hybrid warfare challenges facing Eastern Europe. A key panel hosted by Friedrich Naumann Foundation Romania focused on Russia's deliberate use of migration as a geopolitical weapon amid its war on Ukraine. Russian and Belarusian strategies facilitate migrant flows from the Middle East towards EU borders such as Lithuania, Poland, and Finland to destabilize EU and NATO by overwhelming border security and fueling political divisions. Panelists emphasized the scale of displacement with 13 million Ukrainians displaced, 3.7 million internally, marking Europe's largest displacement crisis since WWII. The forum stressed that migration itself is not a threat, but its manipulation erodes democratic values and social cohesion. Speakers called for coordinated European and NATO responses combining humanitarian aid with enhanced border intelligence, effective integration policies, combating disinformation, and strengthening resilience against hybrid threats.