Skibitsky: EU understands threats from Russia, question is whether it is capable of neutralizing them in timely manner

This was stated by Vadym Skibitsky, Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Let's analyze all the doctrinal documents of the European Union and NATO countries over the past three years. And what will you see there? The enemy is the Russian Federation. Are the methods of conducting hybrid actions described there? Yes, they are. What is the biggest threat? Propaganda, disinformation, cyberattacks, and so on. Everything is there. They understand this, it is written in their documents. And in accordance with these documents, the entire security and defense system is developing. Another question is how capable they are of countering these threats," Skibitsky emphasized.

He noted that Europe is focused on internal problems, migration issues, etc., although in 2022 it tried to counter hybrid threats from the Russian Federation.

“It cannot be said that this is something new for Europe. They felt it back in 2022 and had a unique opportunity then, when they completely banned all these ”Sputniks," Telegram, Russian channels, and expelled all intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover, but time passed and it all came back. Unfortunately," Skibitsky noted.

Responding to a question about why EU countries do not shoot down Russian “shaheds” that fly into their territory, he emphasized: “We also did not shoot down ”shaheds" in October 2022. Then we shot down the S-300 air defense system, and now we are using a wide range of means. They don't have the experience yet, but they will."

As reported by Ukrinform, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army General Wiesław Kukula said that on Wednesday night, Poland's airspace was violated twice.