NATO Warns Russia’s Hybrid War Is Targeting Europe’s Energy Grid
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He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for… While many may be focusing on the transfer of nuclear weapons from Russia to Belarus on NATO’s northeastern Baltic States border, the bloc's security apparatus is at least as concerned about imminent attacks on the region's energy infrastructure, a senior source who works very closely with the European Union's (E.U.'s) energy security complex exclusively toldOilPrice.comlast week.
“Russia’s effectively been at war with the West since February 2007 when [Russian President Vladimir] Putin condemned NATO’s expansion to the East, which was followed by a huge cyber-attack against Estonia,” he said.
“Then we had the beginning of the land pushback, with Russia’s war on Georgia in 2008, where we [the West] did nothing to dissuade him from further actions Westwards, then the first invasion of Ukraine and annexation on Crimea in 2014, where we did nothing much again [as analysed in full inmy latest book on the new global oil market order], and then the second invasion of Ukraine in 2022,” he added.
“We’re into the final phase now, in which we’re making a stand, and Russia’s testing how resolved we are,” he underlined.
So, what happens next in terms of Europe’s crucial energy infrastructure? “We expect hybrid attacks of the sort we’ve seen in recent years, and more direct physical ones, which have also increased in recent months, primarily against gas infrastructure, electricity cables, offshore networks, and control systems,” said the source.
“The full array of these measures has already been used by Russia in Ukraine, so they’re ready to roll out whenever Putin wants -- it’s just a question of how far he’s willing to push the boundaries before he thinks we’ll react with true deterrent force,” he added.
Institute for Security Studies, there have been several incidents since Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in which undersea energy cables were severed by Russian-affiliated vessels.
For example, in December 2024, Russian shadow fleet vesselEagle Swas apprehended by Finnish authorities after severing EstLink 2, a critical electricity interconnector linking Finland and Estonia.
The ship had military-grade detection hardware in its hull, indicating a direct, premeditated, and malicious attack on European energy infrastructure.
Similarly, a Russian vessel, theScanlark, was detained by authorities after being caught launching surveillance drones and carrying spying equipment near the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Station in Finland.
“Subsea electricity interconnectors and gas pipelines in the Baltic and North Seas are also highly vulnerable to the same style of attacks, with the same capabilities also available for the targeting of power grids to trigger casc.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
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| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
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| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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