ISW Expert Warns: Kremlin Testing NATO Air Defenses For Future Attack

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) George Barros, the Russia Team and Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Team Lead at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), stated this in an exclusive comment to Ukrinform in Washington.

“The Russian drone airspace in NATO countries are acts of war that must serve as an urgent wake-up call for us in Europe and the US. This was not just an act of 'hybrid warfare' that we can choose to ignore,” the American expert emphasized.

He noted that such actions by Russia should be characterized as deliberate reconnaissance missions intended to collect data on NATO's air defense responses, as well as to identify vulnerabilities in the Alliance's military-political decision-making process.

“These acts of war are part of phase zero of Russia's condition setting to prepare to attack NATO members in the near future following the end of the war in Ukraine,” Barros stressed.

According to him, over the past several years, Russia has been steadily setting conditions for an offensive against the Alliance. This includes forming new divisions and optimizing command-and-control headquarters on NATO's eastern flank, as well as conducting assassinations and sabotage in Europe targeting NATO's defense industrial base. In addition, Kremlin propaganda is actively pushing narratives claiming that Finland, the Baltic states, and Poland are“not real countries.”

“These are the prerequisite preparations for future war that Moscow is preparing,” the expert underscored.

He emphasized that time is currently not on NATO's side.

“NATO may not have three-to-five years to wait to finish rearming following the end of fighting in Ukraine. The Alliance must be prepared to deter and, if necessary, defeat a conventional Russian military attack against NATO's eastern front no later than12 months following the effective end of fighting in Ukraine,” Barros said.

He added that battlefield innovations have transformed the Russian military in such a way that it no longer needs massive reserves of tanks and armored vehicles to advance and overwhelm frontline states.

Read also: Putin will not stop provocations until he receives real response – German expert

As reported by Ukrinform, on the night of September 10, Polish forces shot down drones that had entered Polish airspace. Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that NATO allies were facing“a large-scale provocation” from Moscow.

On September 13, a Russian drone penetrated about 10 kilometers into Romanian territory and remained in the country's airspace for around 50 minutes.

Copenhagen International Airport suspended arrivals and departures on the night of September 23 due to two to three large drones spotted nearby.

Aalborg Airport in Denmark, used for both commercial and military flights, was shut down twice this week for several hours because of large drones appearing in its airspace.

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