Russian Hybrid Attacks are Constantly Happening in Europe, Says Polish FM

Russian hybrid attacks are taking place constantly across Europe but there are no plans to adopt Moscow’s methods and retaliate, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski has said. 

Speaking to American broadcaster CNN, Sikorski said the Russian-organized attacks are still destructive in nature, even if they fall below the threshold of an armed invasion. 

“People are dying,” the minister told Sunday’s Fareed Zakaria GPS show.  

“We’ve had assassinations in Poland, Great Britain, Germany and elsewhere. We’ve had arsons. We’ve had the attempted blowing up of a train,” he listed. “We’ve had armed drones traversing Lithuania and being used at Leipzig airport.”  

The minister said cyberattacks take place “daily” in Poland on the country’s hospitals, the financial and energy systems. He added that Russia is also mapping critical infrastructure at sea and engaging in espionage against the country.  

“It’s constant,” Sikorski summarized.  

Europe will not retaliate 

The minister said it is known which unit of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service is behind the attacks and that it is planning further escalations. 

However, he said Europe will not adopt Russia’s methods to retaliate.  

“We don’t do the kinds of things that the Russians do. You know, we don’t have departments of “wet affairs,” as they call them, that is to say, assassination squads. We don’t send drones or terrorists into Russia because we are peaceful democracies. We would like ourselves and Ukraine to be just left alone,” Sikorski said. 

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“We think that our best response to Russian provocations is more help for Ukraine,” he concluded.