Since 2022 Europe has seen fires in warehouses and shopping centres, parcels that ignite in cargo depots, undersea cables and pipelines cut by dragging anchors, navigation signals jammed over the Baltic, and drones over airports and military bases. European governments attribute most of it to Russia's intelligence services. Russia denies all of it. At sea, European navies have begun boarding the ageing tankers that carry Russian oil around the sanctions.
The wider confrontation, its history and each side's full account: Russia and Europe.
Where it stands · September 2026
Denmark says it has uncovered Russian plans for sabotage and the recruitment of Danes to carry them out. German police hold a suspect over attacks on the power grid, and the European Union has blamed Russia for a drone attack at Leipzig. NATO allies say they foiled an attempt to sabotage an undersea cable. A second suspect in the 2022 destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, a Ukrainian, was arrested in Croatia in August; Kyiv denies any part in it.
What the dispute is about
Attribution. These acts are designed to be deniable. They are carried out by people hired online for small sums, often Ukrainians, Moldovans or locals, who may not know their employer. Governments point to intelligence they cannot publish; courts convict the hired hands and rarely reach further.
The threshold. None of it amounts to an armed attack under NATO's treaty. The question is what an alliance built to answer tanks does about a fire in a warehouse.
Who does what to whom. Europe seizes Russian-linked ships and finances attacks on Russian soil through Ukraine. Russia calls that the same thing under another name.