"Kremlin Conducts Final Phase Of Hybrid Warfare Against Europe"

Europe has an obligation to respond decisively and without compromise.

An investigation by international journalists has revealed that the Russian "shadow fleet" discharges oil directly into European waters, circumventing sanctions and safety standards.

In the last year alone, at least five such cases have been recorded off the coasts of EU countries.

How should European countries respond to the threat of a large-scale environmental disaster created by Russian "shadow fleet" tankers?

The site Charter97.org talked to Ukrainian military and political observer of the group "Information Resistance" Alexander Kovalenko about it:

-Russian tankers of the "shadow fleet", when they pass near European countries (even in neutral waters), should be accompanied by appropriate structures - border services of this or that European country. This should be a process of control. And not just an escort, but in case there is such illegal activity that harms the environment, the crew should be arrested and the vessel itself should be detained.

This is the level of control that should be imposed on all participants in the waters of the same Baltic Sea. Control should be strict. The times of some kind of mutual trust and conviction that no provocations or sabotage can be allowed on the part of vessels passing through the seas of the European Union, including Russian vessels, have passed.

Every vessel, and this applies not only to the "shadow fleet", but also to others, including official commercial vessels with all documents, must be under close scrutiny. Threats come from all equally.

The consequences can range from environmental catastrophe to the launching of reconnaissance drones in the direction of a country or even scenarios involving specially trained divers for sabotage. The threat is extremely high, especially now that Russia is raising the stakes against Europe and NATO countries.

- There are reports that some Russian tankers may have launched drones spotted around Denmark and other countries in the Baltic region. How should the European Union respond to such incidents? Can this be seen as a new form of Russia's hybrid aggression against the EU?

- This is not a new form, but an active phase of Russia's hybrid war against Europe, which has been going on for quite some time. Europe turned a blind eye to the fact that when Putin came to power in Russia, hybrid operations against European countries began.

In the 2000s, the Baltic States - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - were subjected to massive cyberattacks by Russian cyberdruids led by the ideologist of Russian search technologies and the concept of information security of the Russian Federation Igor Ashmanov.

Then Europe turned a blind eye, although it was the initial phase of probing the information security of individual countries. Now we are witnessing the final phase of this hybrid war, which has lasted more than twenty years. The final phase is active operations, including reconnaissance operations, on the territory of the potential enemy. This is exactly what we are seeing now.

Russia has been uncompromisingly and quite rigidly transferring the hybrid war from one phase to another on the territory of Europe. The active phase is the last stage of hybrid warfare, after which comes the real war. Given that Russia has moved to this phase, Europe must respond as tough as possible - without tolerance, amorphousness, spinelessness and lack of initiative.

Hard answers to all these provocations may not stop Russia - apparently, the military and political leadership in the Kremlin has long since chosen this scenario for itself. But at least they can delay the inevitable. And Europe will be able to prepare itself in the meantime.

I emphasize once again: it must be a willful decision of virtually every government and every country that is obliged to respond to such threats.

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