Tensions between NATO and Russia intensified on Monday after the alliance’s top military commander said member states were considering whether to become “more aggressive” in the confrontation Moscow’s hybrid threat campaign.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of the NATO Military Committee, said Financial times the alliance is evaluating whether to be “proactive rather than reactive,” including the possibility of “preemptive” cyber or sabotage operations.
Dragone said such actions could still fall under the law defensive doctrinesaying, “It is further removed from our normal way of thinking or behaving.”
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Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, reportedly said the alliance is considering whether it should “become more aggressive or be proactive rather than reactive.” (Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Dragone pointed to the Baltic Sentry mission, which was launched this year to counter Russian sabotage at sea, and said that “from the beginning of the Baltic Sentry, nothing has happened. So this means that this deterrent is working.”
He added: “Being more aggressive compared to the aggressiveness of our counterpart could be an option, but Dragone also admitted that NATO and its members were much more limited than our counterpart because of ethics, because of the law, because of jurisdiction. It is a problem. I don’t want to say it is a loser position, but it is a more difficult position than that of our counterpart.”
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A NATO force stands guard ahead of the two-day NATO summit at the World Forum in The Hague on June 22, 2025. (Remko De Waal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Moscow immediately pushed back. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Dragone’s comments “an extremely irresponsible step” and accused NATO of signaling its willingness to “move in the direction of escalation,” according to Russian state media.
“As for US involvement,” she explained, “Article 5 merely states that an attack on one is an attack on all. NATO taking a more assertive position does not oblige the US to do the same. [we] deemed necessary’ – and only in the case of an attack on a NATO state.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin watches a naval exercise from the Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser in the Black Sea on January 9, 2020. The exercises involved warships from the Russian Black Sea Fleet, along with several ships from the Northern Fleet. More than 30 warships and 39 aircraft, including several Tu-95 strategic bombers, took part in the exercise. (Alexei Druzhinin / Russian Presidential Press and Information Agency / Handout / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Carlson added: “Putin understands only one thing and that is power. No one has strengthened NATO more than President Trump, and it is critical that we use every lever possible to push Russia to the negotiating table to achieve a lasting and lasting peace deal that protects Ukraine’s sovereignty and defends U.S. national security interests.”
The warnings come amid a steady rhythm of activity linked to Russia, which NATO officials say includes hybrid warfare. The alliance says it faces daily cyber attacks traced back to Moscow, in addition to information operations, migration pressures and repeated attacks on critical infrastructure.
A series of sabotage incidents in late 2024 prompted a major NATO overhaul. Several submarine data cables and a major electricity connection was damaged in November and December, including on December 25. Prosecutors in Finland accused the crew of a Cook Islands-flagged tanker of dragging an anchor more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) and cutting infrastructure, although a Finnish court later dismissed the case as domestic law did not apply.
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The Russian Navy diesel-electric submarine Rostov-on-Don sails through the Bosphorus on its way to the Black Sea, passing the city of Istanbul on February 13, 2022. (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)
More recently, around 20 drones entered NATO member Poland in September, prompting Warsaw to initiate Article 4 talks. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the time that this was “the closest we have come to an open conflict since World War II”, while Moscow denied targeting Polish territory.
