Putin targeted France with hybrid attacks, Macron says as Russian tyrant escalates sabotage campaign against Europe

VLADIMIR Putin targeted France with hybrid attacks, Emmanuel Macron has said. The Russian tyrant is stepping up his shadow warfare campaign against Nato – with terrifying drone plots and rogue incursions wreaking havoc. Putin is trying to launch sabotage attacks on France, Macron has warned Credit: AP The French president gave the stark warning today Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Macron said: “The Russian hybrid threat against Europeans and against France has intensified.” Paris has coordinated with local regions to increase “vigilance in response to the Russian hybrid attacks”, the French president added. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! He said he had ordered a plan protect France’s “critical infrastructure” and “most sensitive” defence industry and technology sites from Russian threats. The “nature of Russian aggression is changing”, Macron also warned. It comes after Russia nearly killed Boris Johnson with a strike on a train Credit: Reuters It comes as a drone, likely Russian, was found washed up on a beach in Poland Credit: KosiniakKamysz/ X It comes amid fears Putin’s sabotage plots might just be the beginning of a larger shadow war against the West. Russia today threatened to strike alleged British military facilities in Ukraine as it accused the UK of being an accomplice to “terrorism and war crimes”. Fiery exchanges have been thrown from Moscow to London in recent weeks after the UK handed over game-changing long-range Storm Shadow missile plans. And just last week, a strike in Ukraine was just minutes away from a train Boris Johnson was travelling on – sparking fears the Kremlin was targeting Britain’s former PM. Most read in The Sun Belarus has also launched military drills near a Nato ‘weak point’ Credit: East2West Aftermath of Russian strikes in Odesa, Ukraine, earlier this week Credit: AP Britain’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow, Danae Dholakia, was today summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and handed a formal protest over the UK’s rapidly increasing supply of drones and long-range weapons to Kyiv. In a sinister escalation, Putin’s officials declared that any British facility used to launch attacks on Russian territory would become a “legitimate target“. Moscow also warned that it reserved the right to take “countermeasures” in what it claimed would be an act of self-defence. Russia is increasingly targeting its neighbouring states in a reckless bid to pressure the military alliance into pulling its support for Ukraine. Experts warn Putin could test Nato with a “large-scale hybrid attack” on the Baltic. Nato jets scrambled to shoot down a drone in Lithuania this week after the latest suspected Russian incursion into the Baltic states airspace. Just hours earlier chaos broke out in the Baltic sea, where a Russian frigate fired flares at a Danish defence helicopter and another drone washed up on a Polish beach. The triple overnight threat came amid growing concern about Russian aggression across the Baltic states – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Just last week Moscow threatened a “devastating” response after Nato activated its Baltic-air policing mission to deter drone incursions near Estonia. There have been at least a dozen drone alerts along Nato’s eastern flank over the past two months. Germany explicitly held Moscow responsible for a botched drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle airport in August. Popescu said: “Moscow has proved its ability to reach many EU states with its attacks on Moldova, Poland and Romania.” Close Putin aide and former FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev declared Tuesday that Russia could obliterate Poland in “two or three days”. Meanwhile, Belarus is also simulating war games with tanks and drone units near Nato’s “weakest link” next to Poland’s border. Comment now