NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not engaging constructively in Ukraine peace talks, attributing this stance to Putin's perceived weakening position in the ongoing conflict. Rutte suggested that Putin's increasing reliance on hybrid attacks, including sabotage and cyberattacks, against NATO countries indicates a losing effort in Ukraine, now in its fifth year. Rutte also briefed President Zelenskyy on the ongoing ballistic attacks on Kyiv, emphasizing Ukraine's critical need for Patriot interceptors to defend against such threats.
Despite the rising number of hybrid incidents, which an Associated Press interactive map shows escalated from 59 in March 2025 to over 200 currently, Rutte assured citizens of NATO countries to remain calm, stating that "Putin is in a bad place" and "is not winning the war in Ukraine." He affirmed NATO's capability to handle such incidents with existing action plans, emphasizing that the best response is to continue providing more weapons to Ukraine.
While Baltic leaders like Rinkevics anticipate an increase in Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approaches, making diplomatic progress unlikely until spring, Estonian leaders believe a conventional military attack on Europe by Putin is improbable due to the threat of NATO response and Russia's forces being tied down in Ukraine. The Danish Defense Intelligence Service, however, warned of a "low but growing risk" of a limited Russian military attack against bordering NATO countries in the coming months, aimed at diverting European resources from Ukraine and sowing division within NATO. Both NATO and EU officials, along with U.S. Ambassador Matthew Whitaker, note that Russian armed forces are largely occupied in Ukraine, and no unusual military activity has been observed near European borders, suggesting a full-scale conflict is not imminent.
