NATO weighs 'more aggressive' response to Russia's hybrid threats
Tensions between NATO and Russia escalated on Monday after the alliance's top military commander stated that member states are considering whether they need to adopt a "more aggressive" approach in addressing Moscow's hybrid threat campaign.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of NATO’s military committee, told the Financial Times the alliance is evaluating if it should be "proactive instead of reactive," including the possibility of "preemptive" cyber or sabotage operations, News.Az reports.
Dragone said such actions could still fall under defensive doctrine, saying, "It is further away from our normal way of thinking or behavior."
Dragone pointed to the Baltic Sentry mission, launched this year to counter Russian-linked sabotage at sea, saying that "from the beginning of Baltic Sentry, nothing has happened. So this means that this deterrence is working."
He added: "Being more aggressive compared with the aggressivity of our counterpart could be an option, but Dragone also admitted that NATO and its members had much more limits than our counterpart because of ethics, because of law, because of jurisdiction. It is an issue. I don’t want to say it’s a loser position, but it is a harder position than our counterpart’s."
Moscow immediately pushed back. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Dragone’s comments "an extremely irresponsible step" and accused NATO of signaling it is willing "to move toward escalation," according to Russian state media.
Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition and a former senior State Department and official at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital that, "Given Russia’s unilateral invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the idea that Russia is warning about NATO being irresponsible is laughable. Putin has been given numerous opportunities to end the war peacefully and has refused them all because of his own expansionist goals. NATO is simply reacting to his aggression."
"Regarding U.S. involvement," she explained, "Article 5 merely states that an attack on one is an attack on all. NATO adopting a more assertive position does not obligate the U.S. to do the same. We are only required to take ‘such action as [we] deem necessary’ – and that, only in the case of an attack on a NATO state."
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