Russia is waging 'hybrid warfare' against Europe, officials say. What does that mean?

Europe has to face the world of the "hybrid warfare" being waged against it, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, telling EU lawmakers that a bid of incidents was "not random harassment" but portion of a concerted run to unsettle and weaken the bloc.

Recent drone and airspace incursions, cyberattacks and predetermination interference were conscionable a fewer incidents that von der Leyen cited arsenic instances of hybrid warfare against Europe.

"In conscionable the past 2 weeks, MiG fighters person violated Estonia's airspace, and drones person flown implicit captious sites successful Belgium, Poland, Romania, Denmark and Germany. Flights person been grounded, jets scrambled, and countermeasures deployed to guarantee the information of our citizens," von der Leyen said Wednesday during a code to the European Parliament successful Strasbourg, France.

"Make nary mistake. This is portion of a worrying signifier of increasing threats. Across our Union, undersea cables person been cut, airports and logistics hubs paralysed by cyberattacks, and elections targeted by malign power campaigns," von der Leyen said, adding emphatically: "This is hybrid warfare, and we person to instrumentality it precise seriously."

While she did not blasted each those incidents straight connected Moscow, von der Leyen said it was evident that "Russia wants to sow division."

Moscow has agelong been accused of being down a multitude of "hybrid" attacks against its European neighbors but has repeatedly denied those accusations. CNBC contacted the Kremlin for a effect to von der Leyen's latest remarks and is awaiting a response.

So what is simply a hybrid war, oregon warfare? Put simply, it's a mode to wage a benignant of warfare without appearing to beryllium doing so.

There is nary acceptable explanation for hybrid warfare but defense, subject and information experts hold that, fundamentally, it blends accepted subject methods with much subversive oregon irregular tactics designed to disrupt, distract and undermine adversaries.

European countries connected the periphery of the EU, oregon those connected the frontier with Russia, similar the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, oregon those successful Eastern Europe specified arsenic Romania and Poland, person been progressively exposed to hybrid warfare attacks.

These incidents person ranged from vigor and telecommunications infrastructure, specified arsenic undersea cables, being sabotaged, to Russian jets oregon submarines venturing into NATO airspace oregon waters for abbreviated periods of time.

Russia has denied being down galore of these incidents, though it tends not to remark connected its jets entering NATO airspace oregon drone incidents that led to Danish airports being closed and flights disrupted. A fig of European officials accused Russia of being down the disruption but the authorities said they had not yet recovered grounds of Russia's involvement.

That's 1 of the hallmarks of hybrid warfare, the EU's von der Leyen said, with specified incidents "calculated to linger successful the twilight of deniability."

Russia's run of hybrid activities successful Europe has expanded significantly since Moscow's full-scale penetration of Ukraine began implicit 3 years ago, according to a report published earlier this twelvemonth from geopolitical and information quality service, Dragonfly.

It documented 219 incidents of suspected Russian hybrid warfare successful Europe since 2014, including sabotage, assassinations and electromagnetic attacks, specified arsenic GPS jamming. Of these incidents, 86% person taken spot since aboriginal 2022 and astir fractional (46%) occurred successful 2024 alone.

The Baltic states, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland and the U.K. volition astir apt stay the superior targets, the study noted, owed to their beardown enactment for Ukraine.

European officials are nether nary illusion that the clip to enactment to bolster determination information and defenses against malign activities is now.

NATO members earlier this twelvemonth pledged to summation defence spending to 5% of grpss home merchandise and Europe has vowed to mobilize its defence assemblage to conscionable the "permanent menace to European security" that's posed by Russia, arsenic Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden told CNBC past week.

Member states discussed past week the instauration of "flagship" defence projects specified arsenic the Eastern Flank Watch initiative, which proposes the instauration of a "drone wall" network that would support against airspace violations by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). There is immoderate ambivalence implicit the drone wall, however, with Germany's defence curate appearing to determination acold h2o connected the idea.

Luxembourg's Frieden said the EU did not privation a struggle with Russia, but needed to support itself.

"Hybrid attacks are evidently thing that tin hap anyplace — the cables successful the Baltic Sea, the attacks connected our IT systems, the drones that tin alert implicit immoderate of our countries, that shows that determination is simply a definite benignant of provocation that we person to instrumentality seriously," Frieden said, adding: "I don't privation america to beryllium astatine warfare with Russia ... but we request to instrumentality threats seriously" helium told CNBC's Silvia Amaro.

"We privation to archer Russia, don't try, halt it, spell backmost ... [and that it has] nary accidental successful conquering the Europe."