BBC: Russian elite insider helped Ukrainian intelligence blow up a general in Moscow

At least 52 incidents involving physical hybrid aggression by Russia and its ally Belarus took place in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway and Moldova between April 1 and October 15, 2026, according to a joint investigation by Vot Tak and European media outlets, conducted under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Eurovision News Spotlight analytical project. Source: Vot Tak

The researchers focused on physical incidents, including sabotage, espionage, airspace violations and attacks on infrastructure, which officials and intelligence agencies linked to operations by Moscow and Minsk.

Poland was the main theater of hybrid warfare, with at least nine incidents recorded on its territory—nearly a fifth of the total. During the reporting period, a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crashed in Poland, and a Mi-8 military helicopter intruded into its airspace. Attempts to set fire to and sabotage defense industry enterprises producing drones—including facilities belonging to WB Electronics and Flytronic—were thwarted. A Starlink satellite communications ground station was also damaged in an arson attack. In addition, Russian émigré artist Semyon Skrepetsky was murdered in Poland; Polish authorities believe Russian intelligence services may have been involved.

Meanwhile, Belarus continues to employ hybrid pressure tactics, including organizing attempts by illegal migrants to breach state borders through the Suwałki Gap (Polish border guards recorded more than 250 such attempts and detained around 900 people in the border area), gathering information on the Belarusian opposition in Warsaw, and launching weather balloons that temporarily disrupted operations at Vilnius airport.

Hybrid operations spanned another 16 countries, including Romania and Bulgaria, where drone crashes and attacks by naval drones on vessels near NATO ports on the Black Sea were recorded, as well as Germany, where saboteurs attempted to attack Leipzig Airport and the Bundeswehr airbase in Wunstorf using drones. GPS jamming and maneuvers by Russian ships near undersea cables were recorded in Norway; military aircraft violated airspace in Finland; and drones crashed and exploded in Moldova.

Teija Tiilikainen, Director of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, stressed that the growing number and variety of such attacks are expanding the “gray zone” and blurring the line between peace and war, as Russia uses this tactic to weaken Western support for Ukraine and test the limits of the West’s tolerance.

As a reminder, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed when his car was blown up in southern Moscow.