U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said Sept. 5 that NATO member states should not tolerate deliberate acts of hybrid warfare and that Washington will stand by affected nations as they take steps to respond to these threats.
Speaking on the sidelines of a business conference in Italy, Whitaker highlighted the attempted drone attack on Leipzig-Halle Airport in Germany last month, which Berlin blamed on Russia, as more concerning than other incidents the alliance has faced, particularly along its eastern flank. He said that when an attacker can be identified, NATO’s position is to express clearly that the behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
He added that member states must remain prepared and vigilant, deliver a strong message when such actions challenge them, and ensure that national authorities are monitoring critical infrastructure that could be at risk.
Whitaker also said that affected nations should take the lead in responding to hybrid warfare directed at them, with the United States providing support to member states dealing with such attacks.
What hybrid warfare means in the NATO context
Hybrid warfare refers to hostile activity that falls below the threshold of conventional armed conflict, including cyberattacks, sabotage, disinformation campaigns, interference in elections, and physical infrastructure attacks such as the Leipzig-Halle drone incident. The alliance has increasingly focused on these threats as a category requiring collective responses, since they are designed to undermine alliance cohesion and individual member state resilience without triggering the mutual defense provisions of Article 5.
The Leipzig-Halle Airport drone attack, which Germany attributed to Russian actors, is one of a series of incidents along NATO’s eastern flank that European governments have characterized as Russian operations. These have included suspected sabotage of underwater cables, GPS interference affecting civilian aviation and suspected arson operations targeting logistics infrastructure in several countries.
The broader context
Whitaker’s comments come amid elevated tensions between Russia and European NATO members, particularly Germany, which has significantly increased defense spending and support for Ukraine since the 2022 invasion. Germany’s attribution of the Leipzig-Halle drone attack to Russia represents one of the more direct public accusations by a major European government against Moscow in the context of infrastructure attacks.
The United States has been pressing European allies to increase their individual resilience against such threats and to take ownership of responses to attacks on their own territory, while maintaining the collective defense commitments of the alliance. Whitaker’s statement that affected nations should take the lead while the U.S. lends support reflects that division of responsibility as Washington has articulated it.
