Russia’s ‘hybrid attacks’ against NATO ‘look like war’ and allies must draw ‘red lines’
Russia’s unconventional attacks against NATO “look like war” and allies must set new red lines that will trigger a retaliation if crossed, a former foreign minister has warned.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, who stepped down as foreign minister of Lithuania earlier this month after four years in the post, told Sky News he did not believe the alliance was responding with sufficient speed and urgency to the threat.
Moscow is accused of a campaign of so-called hybrid attacks – designed to sit in a grey zone under the threshold of conventional war – that includes sabotage, the cutting of undersea cables, cyber hacks, election interference and assassination plots.
The Kremlin has denied Western allegations of hybrid hostilities.
Mr Landsbergis said a failure by NATO to act would lead to a worsening of the danger.
Lithuania’s former foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. Pic: Reuters
He warned there was even a possibility of an act of Russian hybrid warfare being sufficiently harmful that it could prompt allies to invoke an Article 5 response, whereby an attack on one member state is seen as an attack on all.
“From my perspective, it does look like war,” the Lithuanian politician said in an interview earlier in December, a couple of days before he left his post as foreign minister.
“Russians are… very good at sensing weakness or geopolitical vacuums. So, if there is no pushback, they will just creep on and continue with their activity.”
Asked whether Russian “grey zone” attacks could reach a level that prompted the alliance to invoke Article 5, Mr Landsbergis said: “Yes, I would think so. It is it is possible.”
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NATO warning over Russian attacks
He said it was important that Vladimir Putin understood this as otherwise his intelligence services would become even more brazen in their alleged attacks.
“We have to have a general NATO strategy that would be able to draw red lines and suggest a retaliation,” he said.
“I’m not necessarily saying a retaliation in kind. Right. It can be many things. But Russians need to know that this is not their park. You cannot just walk around and expect nothing to happen to you.”
NATO’s 32 member states are updating a 2015 strategy on tracking, deterring and countering hybrid warfare.
But the former Lithuanian foreign minister signalled that he did not believe their response to the threat was sufficiently fast or urgent.
“No, honestly, it isn’t,” he said.
Read more from Sky News:
NATO chief calls for shift to wartime mindset
Is Europe listening to NATO chief’s warnings?
He said countries like his and others with long experience of Russian hostility understood the need to act – but that some other allies would rather just hope the threat goes away.
“There’s a big psychological, you know, game, at least in our minds, being played where we try to sweep it under the carpet and not see it.”
The comments came after Sky News on Sunday published an interview with a top alliance official who warned there was a “real prospect” an unconventional attack by Russia against NATO would cause “substantial” casualties.
James Appathurai, who is updating the NATO strategy to track and deter hybrid warfare, also said allies must be clearer among themselves and with Moscow about what level of grey zone hostilities could trigger an allied response, including the use of military force.
James Appathurai is updating a NATO strategy to track and deter so-called hybrid warfare
Elisabeth Braw, a leading expert on hybrid warfare, said the entire way of life for liberal democracies was at risk if allies fail to respond effectively.
“The danger is that we see a death by a thousand cuts in our societies, that various things start malfunctioning or being disrupted and people lose faith in our way of life,” she said.
“And then we are we are really in trouble.”
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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