Russia’s continued campaign of hybrid attacks on Europe is provoking concern at the highest levels of the European Union and NATO as threats escalate in both frequency and severity.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas announced Tuesday that the Russian drone shot down by NATO fighter jets over his nation’s airspace was found to contain an explosive device. The discovery brings a renewed sense of urgency to the incursion, which is just one of multiple hybrid attacks reported in Europe this week, including incidents in Germany, Poland, and Denmark.
“According to the final data, an explosive device has been discovered. [Bomb diffusers] have neutralized it. Specialists will continue to investigate and analyze the drone,” Kaunas said in the statement.
The drone incident was part of a broader campaign that impacted multiple member states this week, including Denmark, where a Russian frigate fired two emergency flares at a military helicopter over the Baltic Sea.
The flares, which were fired without radio communication or warning, missed the helicopter by mere meters as it was photographing the Russian vessel.
“Russia is gradually shifting the boundary for what they consider acceptable behavior,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Tuesday. “This is completely unacceptable and could have put human lives at risk. That is something we cannot accept.”
He summoned Russian ambassador Vladimir Barbin over the incident, but the diplomat contested that the helicopters were conducting “dangerous maneuvers” and “provocative actions” toward the frigate. No punitive actions have been reported.
Kaja Kallas, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told the body on Tuesday that leaders “need to be clear-eyed” that these security breaches “are not accidents.”
“They are calculated attempts by Russia to weaken our resolve, test our unity, and play with fears of escalation,” she said. “Russia adapts itself depending on the country it is targeting.”
Kallas urged member states to increase cooperation on intelligence sharing, stating that a joint effort across the continent is required to “cover the entire Russian hybrid toolbox.”
On Sunday, a Russian drone struck a passenger locomotive at Yahodyn railway station in Ukraine, narrowly missing trains transporting former CIA Director David Petraeus and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning,” Johnson said. “What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day — even on civilian railways.”
Multiple EU diplomats were traveling with Petraeus and Johnson as the group was returning to Europe after the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv.
Lt. Gen. Jason Hinds, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, told reporters on the sidelines of the Air Force Association’s Air and Space Conference on Tuesday that he believes Russia is testing NATO defenses from afar to gauge preparedness. He said the alliance’s defensive priority is “first and foremost, detecting — hopefully well before [a drone] enters NATO territory.”
“We want to know it. We want to know where it’s coming from. We want to have the capability to sense it,” the lieutenant general said. “We want to be able to have the [command and control] systems to be able to decide what to do about it, and then have the right kit to be able to act.”
Hinds does not believe, however, that Russia and NATO are on the cusp of a hot conflict, pointing out that the “small numbers” of “limited incursions” by Russian drones are not matched by a war footing of ground troops or any conventional military force that could spark a full war. He explained that hybrid activities might be “one of the few levers that Putin has available to him” due to lacking an “advantage in geography, domain, or willingness.”
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“We’re not seeing a massing of forces across the opposite side of Finland, a new NATO nation. We’re not seeing a massing of forces whatsoever in any domain opposite of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia. You’re seeing a significant number of one-way attack drones in the Black Sea targeting Ukraine. Some of them are entering Romania,” Hinds explained. “What you’re not seeing is a direct confrontation in geography. We’re not seeing direct competition in domains, and I think Putin knows that we’re ready.”
In Germany, authorities are searching for a drone believed to have crashed on Monday, less than a mile away from a military air base in Wunstorf.
A Russian drone carrying explosives was found at the Leipzig/Halle Airport last month, sending air travel into chaos as flights were canceled and rerouted amid a bomb diffusion process.
Poland found a drone drifting in the Baltic Sea near its northern coast on the same day. Its origins are unclear, but the aircraft is being inspected.