Nato is considering “pre-emptive” action against Russia following a string of hybrid attacks on Europe, a senior official in the alliance has warned.
Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who serves as chair of the Nato Military Committee, said the alliance may need to adopt a more “aggressive” approach to deter Moscow from continuing its campaign of drone incursions and cyberattacks in Europe.
A recent Financial Times investigation revealed how Nato has been put on high-alert after three vessels in the Baltic Sea were accused of dragging anchors to damage energy and communication cables, with a total of 11 incidents recorded.
Other incidents include regular cyber attacks on multiple European countries and incursions of Russian drones into Nato airspace.
Dragone told the FT that the alliance was “studying everything” in deciding how to respond.
“On cyber, we are kind of reactive. Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about,” he said.
He acknowledged that such an approach would be unusual for Nato but that new tactics may be required as the war in Ukraine nears its fourth year.
Dragone argued a “pre-emptive strike” by Nato could be considered a “defensive action”, despite it being “further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour”.
“Being more aggressive compared with the aggressivity of our counterpart could be an option. [The issues are] legal framework, jurisdictional framework, who is going to do this?”
In January this year, Nato launched Operation Baltic Sentry, a mission to better patrol the region and deter a possible Russian attack. This included amping up patrol aircrafts, warships and drones.
Russia was not directly named in the announcement, but Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said at the time the alliance would improve its monitoring of Moscow’s “shadow fleet”, which refers to ships without clear ownership that are used to carry sanctioned oil.
Dragone added this had been a positive step by Nato to make the region safer.
“From the beginning of Baltic Sentry, nothing has happened. So this means that this deterrence is working,” he said.
However, concerns still exist on whether the operation is going far enough. A court in Finland recently dismissed a case against a crew on board a shadow fleet ship that damaged undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland because the incident happened in international waters.
Russia said on Monday that Dragone’s remarks were “extremely irresponsible” and an attempt to move towards escalation.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “We see in it a deliberate attempt to undermine efforts to overcome the Ukrainian crisis. The people making such statements should be aware of the risks and possible consequences, including for the alliance members themselves.”
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