{"id":12777,"date":"2026-09-02T01:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T01:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/12777\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T01:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T01:46:15","slug":"latika-m-bourke-russia-edges-closer-to-war-with-europe-as-nato-struggles-to-deter-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/12777\/","title":{"rendered":"LATIKA M BOURKE: Russia edges closer to war with Europe as NATO struggles to deter Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Europe is failing to deter Russia from escalating its attacks on NATO, according to the Chief of Germany\u2019s Defence Force.<\/p>\n

General Carsten Breuer made the comments as the German government said Russia masterminded a drone attack at a German airbase used by the military and NATO, as well as the Ukrainians, to transport supplies and weapons.<\/p>\n

The discovery of up to three drones loaded with explosives at the Leipzig\/Halle Airport is the most serious attack on NATO soil by Russia to date and follows a string of drone sightings around European airports and Russian drones and even missiles crashing into NATO territory.<\/p>\n

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Asked at the Bled Strategic Forum, an exclusive gathering of security, political and diplomatic figures in Slovenia in Central Europe attended by The Nightly, if NATO was deterring Russia, General Breuer said: \u201cHave you seen recently an attack against NATO countries?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deterring on the conventional side,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe are not deterring \u2014 not deterring enough \u2014 in this sphere of hybrid attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"General\"GeneralGeneral Carsten Breuer speaks at the Slovenian Forum. Credit: Rotarlux<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have to get better in this, and we have to understand that Russia doesn\u2019t see it in different steps \u2014 they\u2019re not talking about peace, crisis, war; they see it as a continuum, and they are escalating and de-escalating.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have to cope with this situation, and we have to develop our instruments to cope with the situation also for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, Germany said a rocket attack on its energy grid in the eastern state of Brandenburg on Tuesday was \u201csabotage\u201d but unlike the drone attack at Leipzig\/Halle Airport last month, was not yet ready to say who was responsible.<\/p>\n

Unlike Germany\u2019s other airports, Leipzig\/Halle operates 24 hours a day making it a hub for militaries and Ukraine\u2019s Antonov Airlines which transports cargo for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

A drone carrying an explosive device and a detonator was discovered near a plane on August 4. The device did not explode. A second drone is suspected to have collided with a DHL aircraft nearby and German media has since reported the discovery of a third drone rigged with explosives. A well-placed European source believed Russian intelligence was responsible.<\/p>\n

Almost a month later, Germany\u2019s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt declared that Russia was responsible but said it was not an \u201cact of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken together, police investigations, patterns of the crime and intelligence findings substantiate Russian responsibility for the attempted attack at Leipzig Airport,\u201d he said in Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not view Leipzig as an isolated incident, but rather see it in the context of other hybrid actions. We assume that Germany will be the target of further hybrid attacks by Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Police\"PolicePolice use a bomb-detonating robot after a collision with a Ukrainian plane at Leipzig\/Halle Airport earlier this month. Credit: Jens Schlueter\/Getty<\/p>\n

Germany summoned the ambassador, closed the Russian consulate in the city of Bonn and shut down a Russian cultural centre. It had already raised the threat level to high.<\/p>\n

NATO boss Mark Rutte backed the German finding saying: \u201cThe evidence is clear.\u201d He said the Alliance stood in solidarity with Germany. The Secretary-General will meet EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday to further coordinate a European response. Europe is preparing more sanctions against Russia.<\/p>\n

European governments expressed similar messages of support for Germany. Also speaking at the Bled Strategic Forum was George Robertson, one of Mr Rutte\u2019s predecessors.<\/p>\n

Lord Robertson served as NATO Secretary-General between 1999 and 2003 and recently conducted a review of the UK\u2019s defence posture. He has regularly called for higher defence spending in the UK and across Europe.<\/p>\n

He said the public would not forgive politicians who did not prepare the public and their defences according to the heightened threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re underprepared, not unprepared, underprepared, of that there is no doubt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked when a sabotage attack could cross the threshold and reach an act of war, he said: \u201cWe\u2019ll know it when we see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threat is not in anyway theoretical, it\u2019s real and it\u2019s happening. The impression is that we think about war and threats as being a tank formation. That\u2019s not the way that modern war takes place.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo at the moment we are under attack, daily. Across Europe we\u2019re seeing sabotage operations take place contracted out to organised crime, that\u2019s the simplest way of doing it \u2026 you deny any responsibility for doing it and that is ongoing at the present moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

General Breuer also expressed concern that Russia could exploit the United States\u2019 efforts to rebalance NATO responsibilities before Europe was ready to defend itself alone.<\/p>\n

He said Europe could in the future take charge and defend the continent without the Americans but not yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we do it without the Americans? If we take the time right now, no. Can we do it in the near future? Probably yes. Can we do it in the far future? Definitely yes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need transparency about what are our obligations, what are the requirements, what are our goals, our aims from NATO. What do we want to do nationally wise? And we have to compare this with the capabilities we have in stock.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the Americans are pulling out, this is coming from 2010, then we have to do it with transparency; we need a roadmap to compare capability, and then we go into developing capabilities which can really support this approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m afraid of non-transparent actions in the meantime where we don\u2019t have the capabilities and Russians see this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trans-Atlantic alliance pledges that each member considers an attack on one and an attack on all. The only time the mutual defence vow has been activated was after the September 11 attacks on the United States.<\/p>\n

As part of his attacks on the European Union and NATO in particular, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw American support for the Alliance if member countries did not raise their defence spending.<\/p>\n

Last week CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow,for what many US media outlets reported was to directly warn the Kremlin against launching an attack on NATO.<\/p>\n

Allison Hooker, the undersecretary for political affairs at the US State Department, said the Hague summit, when NATO countries agreed to increase their defence spending, was \u201cmiraculous\u201d and that the Trump administration\u2019s focus had moved from \u201cburden sharing\u201d to \u201cburden shifting\u201d ending in a \u201cpermanent realignment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough it\u2019s been disputed maybe over the years and questioned \u2026 President Trump and Secretary (Marco) Rubio have made clear this year that we are a part of the NATO alliance, we are not leaving the alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Europe is failing to deter Russia from escalating its attacks on NATO, according to the Chief of Germany\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,538],"class_list":["post-12777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-politics","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}