Main points
- Russia is conducting hybrid attacks, including cyberattacks and disinformation operations against NATO, to weaken support for Ukraine.
- The Kremlin also uses migration pressure on the Polish border and carries out espionage and sabotage operations to distract Polish military forces.
NATO is currently living in the conditions of a cold war, as Moscow constantly carries out various hybrid actions against the Alliance countries. In particular, we are talking about cyber attacks and sabotage actions.
General Stanislav Kozei, former head of the Polish National Security Bureau, told Channel 24 about this, noting that compared to the first Cold War of the 20th century, there is now a completely new category of threats that NATO has to deal with.
What attacks against NATO is Russia carrying out?
From time to time, information appears about various cyber operations to hack information systems. Russians are using psychological pressure to discourage support for Ukraine. Russia has been doing this for several years now.
These are targeted disinformation operations, the purpose of which is, for example, to set Ukrainians against Poles in order to discourage them from supporting Kyiv, Kozey noted.
The Kremlin understands that if the West stops helping Ukraine, Ukrainians will not have much chance of fighting back against Russia. Disinformation operations serve this purpose well, from Moscow's point of view.
In addition to this, there are various hybrid actions, such as pressure on the Polish border with Belarus. Russia uses migration as a tool to create a threat in order to attract Polish military potential to protect this border.
A significant part of our military is involved in covering the border with Belarus. Military operations are constantly being conducted there to strengthen the border service due to these hybrid and migration threats, the general said.
Russia is also annoying with its spy and sabotage operations. In particular, over the last two months in Poland there have been a series of fires caused by saboteurs. They were recruited by Russian special services.
Kozey concluded that overall Russian pressure is very intense and Poland as a leading state in this Cold War must solve serious problems that concern the defense potential much more than other Western countries. At the same time, there are countries that do not see any need for this at all.
