Germany belatedly realized scale of Russia’s hybrid attacks, - Bundeswehr colonel
Germany has been slow to recognize the scale of hybrid attacks by Russia. At the same time, in recent years, political leaders have been increasingly drawing public attention to this issue.
This was stated by Colonel Zönke Mararens, a representative of the Center for Digitalization and Capacity Building at the Bundeswehr Cyber Information Command, according to Censor.NET, citing Ukrinform.
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"Germany was quite slow to recognize that we are under attack using such hybrid methods. But I would say that over the past year and a half to two years, we have seen progress at the political level as well," he noted.
At the same time, the colonel stated that hybrid threats are not limited to drones or sabotage against critical infrastructure.
"It's not just drones and it's not just undersea cables; it's also disinformation within our society. It involves the manipulation of the political and judicial systems, and the concept of 'disposable agents,'" Mararens explained.
He mentioned the flights of unidentified drones over critical infrastructure sites in Europe. According to the colonel, the main effect of such actions was not military but psychological in nature.
Therefore, Mararens noted, the National Security Council established in Germany must be granted real authority to make decisions quickly. He cited Finland’s response to the damage to an undersea cable in the Baltic Sea as an example, when authorities decided to detain the suspected vessel in less than an hour.
Germany is studying Ukraine's experience
"We are providing financial support to Ukraine. We are also learning from the experience gained on the battlefield. We provide training for them and also learn from them during joint exercises at our training grounds," he said.
