NATO looking to be 'proactive' against Russian hybrid threats: top commander

AFP | 2025-12-15

NATO is looking to be more "proactive" in the face of Russian hybrid attacks in a bid to create "dilemmas" for the Kremlin, according to the alliance's supreme commander in Europe.

European countries have sounded the alarm over what they see as rising Russian malign activity, including sabotage of railway lines in Poland, arson and cyber attacks.

The growing concern has led to calls from some hawkish NATO members for the alliance to take a more aggressive approach to Moscow's meddling.

"This doesn't represent an existential threat to anything that the alliance is doing. It's not undermining our unity. We're able to respond and manage this," US General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, told journalists on December 4.

But he said that "we also do think about being proactive."

"If Russia is attempting to provide dilemmas to us, then maybe there are ways that we could provide dilemmas to them. And I'll just leave it at that because I don't want to get into the specifics," he said.

The US commander, appointed to the post this year by President Donald Trump, stressed however that NATO remained a "defensive alliance."

"There's nothing offensive about this," he said.

Britain-Norway defense pact

Western officials have accused Russia of waging a campaign of "hybrid warfare" on NATO territory to destabilize their countries as the war in Ukraine drags on.

"Those hybrid threats are a real issue, and I do think that we can anticipate more of that happening," Grynkewich said.

He described the string of incidents as part of a "hybrid network" and argued that NATO had to respond to them regardless of whether they were "reckless" or intentional.

"First off, I think it's important that we attribute it and that we say that we know that Russia is behind some of this, maybe not all of it, but certainly some of it. And our public should know that," he said.

Grynkewich's remarks came as Britain and Norway on December 4 unveiled a new defense pact which will see their navies jointly operate a warship fleet to "hunt Russian submarines" in the North Atlantic.

The agreement between the two NATO allies aims to protect critical undersea infrastructure, such as cables, that Western officials say are increasingly under threat from Moscow.

Britain's Ministry of Defense has reported that sightings of Russian vessels in UK waters have increased 30% in the past two years.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store hailed the agreement with the UK as "a very important agreement on defense cooperation and integration."

"This is really about the present. This is about acknowledging where Europe stands and what we need to take care of security for the future," he added.

The two countries were "making significant steps... because we share waters, we share the strategic environment."