NATO will be "more aggressive" towards Russia
According to the alliance's top military official, NATO is considering responding to Russia's cyber attacks, sabotage and airspace violations in a “more aggressive way.”
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone told the Financial Times (FT) that the western military alliance is considering strengthening Moscow's response to the "hybrid war".
Dragone, the head of the NATO military committee, said, “We are examining everything... In the cyber space, we are acting a kind of reactive. Being more aggressive or proactive instead of being reactive is an issue we are thinking about," he said.
Europe has been affected by numerous hybrid war incidents, from cutting cables in the Baltic Sea to cyber attacks on the continent, some attributed to Russia and some of which are of uncertain origin.
Some diplomats, especially from Eastern European countries, just called on NATO to give up being reactive and respond.
While such a response is the easiest way for cyber attacks, where many countries have attack capabilities, it will be more difficult for sabotage or unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.
Dragone said that "preemptive attack" can be considered an "act of defense," but added, "This is farther than our normal way of thinking and behavior."
Dragone also argued that “being more aggressive may be an option compared to the other party's aggression,” but they are faced with the problem of “who will do” issues such as the legal framework and judicial framework.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Dragone's comments to the FT were an "extremely irresponsible step" and showed that NATO was "ready to continue to escalate tensions."
NATO has achieved success with the Baltic Sentry mission, where ships, aircraft and marine unmanned aerial vehicles patrolled the Baltic Sea, and prevented the repetition of numerous cable-cut events allegedly carried out by ships connected to Russia's “shadow fleet” designed to circumvent West's sanctions in 2023 and 2024.
“Nothing has happened since the beginning of the Baltic Sentry,” Dragone said. This means that this deterrence works," he added.
A Baltic diplomat said, “If all we do is continue to be a reactive, we would invite Russia to continue to try and harm us. Especially when hybrid warfare is asymmetrical, it costs them too little and too much for us. We should try to be more creative," he said.
Despite the success of NATO's Baltic Sentry operation, the Finnish court's rejection of the lawsuit against the crew of the shadow fleet ship Eagle S, which cut several underwater electricity and data cables, on the grounds that the ship was in international waters at the time of the suspicious sabotage, led to concerns in the alliance.
When asked if this gives Russian ships unlimited freedom of movement in international waters, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said, “Yes, that's a problem,” adding that being more ambitious is “an issue they're investigating.”
Valtonen said, "I don't think this is necessary so far. We also need to take a step back and really analyze what the attacker is after. Then we probably shouldn't be hysterical. We have our own game book and we have to trust it because it is quite solid," he said.
Dragone acknowledged that NATO and its members are “subject to much more limitation than our interlocutors due to ethics, law and jurisdiction.”
The admiral said, “This is a problem. I don't want to say that this is a disadvantage, but I can say that we are in a more difficult position than our interlocutors," he said.
The head of the NATO military committee said that the main thing is to deter future attacks. “How to achieve deterrence, through retaliation, through preventive attack... We need to analyze this issue in depth, because there may be even more pressure on it in the future,” Dragone added.