Hybrid warfare: Russia accelerates number of grey zone attacks on Nato allies

Russia's hybrid war against Nato member nations has ramped up since the start of the war in Ukraine, with so-called grey zone attacks like GPS jamming and cyber attacks being the new frontline.

In Finland, the captain of a pilot boat navigating the country's southern coast filmed his radar screen to show the radio interference that he said left him without GPS for 90% of his trip - which the authorities say, is almost certainly Russian jamming in action.

Suspected Russian jamming is also targeting air transport across the Baltic States and other areas of Europe.

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It was experienced first-hand by then-defence secretary Grant Shapps when his RAF aircraft was jammed as it flew back from Poland. 

According to the website GPSJAM, nearly 50,000 flights have reported problems over the Baltic Sea in the past year - most of them near the border with Russia. 

The interference is believed to be coming from the enclave of Kaliningrad, a small Russian province sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic Sea. 

The jamming is just one part of what is being seen as Russia's hybrid war against Nato, operating in the grey zone below full military confrontation.

At the recent Nato conference in Washington, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she believed her country was being attacked every day.

"Not only with critical infrastructure, hybrid attacks, cyber attacks, disinformation, but also on migration," she explained.

"We've seen it in Belarus, into Lithuania. We have seen it on the Finnish border that they are using migrants to destabilise into European countries."

Across Europe there has been a rise in hybrid attacks since the start of the war in Ukraine, with the finger of blame firmly pointed towards Moscow.

Railways have been a favourite target for cyber sabotage, with signalling and ticketing systems put out of action in the Czech Republic.

Officials say there is evidence pro-Russian hackers also targeted railway companies in Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Estonia.

Two years ago undersea internet cables were mysteriously cut between mainland Norway and the island of Svalbard, which a police investigation put down to "human activity".

Last year the Baltic Connector pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged along with two sub-sea cables when a Chinese ship dragged its anchor across them.

And in 2022 there were the Nordstream attacks, when two pipelines sending gas from Russia to Germany, were damaged by mysterious underwater explosions. 

The Russians are also suspected of being involved in spoofing passenger planes, sending bogus GPS signals so the pilots see incorrect data.

Airlines and air transport bodies say it poses a risk to flight safety, but stress the aircraft can switch to other non-GPS backup systems if they suspect they are being jammed.

The EU Commission says Europe must learn from Ukraine and build resilience to Russia to stop Moscow from escalating its grey zone attacks - crossing the threshold from hybrid threats to conventional war.