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European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Opening remarks by Commissioner Kubilius at the Launch Event of the 3rd Hybrid Threats Report Brussels, 23 October 2026 Good morning, First, welcome to the Berlaymont. And thank you for this very important report. I have it on my desk in my office. I have read very thoroughly and highly recommend it. I thank all of you who worked on it - from the Joint Research Ce...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Opening remarks by Commissioner Kubilius at the Launch Event of the 3rd Hybrid Threats Report Brussels, 23 October 2026 Good morning, First, welcome to the Berlaymont. And thank you for this very important report. I have it on my desk in my office. I have read very thoroughly and highly recommend it. I thank all of you who worked on it - from the Joint Research Centre and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. I always say we have three pillars of defence readiness: Material defence readiness – the power of money, the power of production. Institutional defence readiness - the power of organisation – organisation of our defence. Political defence readiness – our willpower to defend, and to unite for our defence. All three pillars are equally important, and if we fail in one of the pillars - the whole defence readiness fails. Political defence readiness - is really what your report is all about: how to defend our willpower against hybrid attacks, targeted to destroy it. Political defence readiness is the absolute precondition for our defence. If there is no will to fight, it doesn ' t matter how many tanks or drones you have or how well organised you are. History is full of examples of kingdoms, countries and empires that have fallen, because they lacked the will to fight and defend themselves. And with threats and hybrid attacks, Russia is now actively attempting to undermine our will to fight and defend ourselves. And especially our will to support Ukraine. Those who know Russia, they know that this is nothing new. Russian hybrid warfare dates already from Soviet times. Now it has a new name, known as the “ Gerasimov doctrine”, which declares there are no dividing lines between occupation of the hearts and minds of the people and attempts to occupy the territory. We see how Russia is now applying this strategy against the EU and NATO Member States. As your report shows, there are more attacks and worse attacks. In recent years we ' ve seen murders, fires, drone provocations, jamming and spoofing. In recent months: many drone incursions in the Baltics and along the Eastern flank. And also beyond the Eastern flank: the drone attack on Leipzig airport. And this month: fires at Starlink infrastructure in Bulgaria and Lithuania. Italian Defence minister Guido Crosetto blamed the recent riots in France and Italy on “ a hybrid war that someone is fighting on our nations”. The Financial Times reported two days ago that pro-Russian social media accounts were trying to make things worse in France. You rightly quote Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said: “ it is time to call it by its name. This is hybrid warfare". Hybrid warfare, which seeks to spread fear, distrust, division in our democracies. And most importantly - to destroy our political will to defend ourselves. Hybrid war waged against us demands hybrid defence from us. And you, in your report, present the way forward: how to build a hybrid defence system - how to anticipate, defend and respond to hybrid attacks. First, we need to understand that our political defence readiness absolutely depends on our resilience as a society. Our ability to defend the hearts and minds of our citizens is as important as our capability to defend our borders. We need to defend the hearts and minds of our people. Helping our citizens to be ready and not to be afraid. And be able to withstand long term hybrid war against us. My home country Lithuania, and other Member States have a concept of “ total defence”. Defence readiness involving all of society. And we need to understand that defence of our power grids, railways or factories against hybrid attacks or sabotage acts is as important as defence of our borders or of the front line. Because when the power grids or railways are destroyed or damaged, it does not only economic damage, but it also spreads fear in our society, it damages the confidence in the state's ability to protect, it destroys political will to defend ourselves. And as you correctly write in your report – our adversary seeks cascading effects of his hybrid attacks and attempts to saturate the European security ecosystem. As you write: “The aim of saturation is to exhaust democracies and wear down their capacity to endure attacks, absorb their impact, recover and adapt”. But the best defence is making sure no attack happens at all. So second, we need to ensure deterrence. And I think your approach in the report is completely right. You make clear that an incremental approach to respond will not deter the worst kind of hybrid attacks, but the opposite - will incentivize further escalation from the Russia side: “Political resolve and decisive actions should be employed to deter hybrid threat operations against Europe through reactive responses. Any collective weakness or hesitation in this regard would be interpreted as not only permission but incitement to escalate further” . Only – I quote – “ striking back decisively … imposing costs that are intolerable for the adversary and discouraging any future planning” of high impact attacks will stop escalation. And another quote: “ The penalty that adversaries must face for attacking Europe should be unbearable enough to deter them from conducting further impactful attacks” It is absolutely clear what our “hybrid defence” and deterrence should be about: If they want to undermine our unity – we will increase our unity. If they want to undermine our support for Ukraine – we will increase our support for Ukraine. And of course we need to have instruments for the strongest counter actions, which we cannot talk about publicly, but which Member States need to discuss. And they are discussing. Finally, we need to act united as Europe. As you say, we need to have “an advanced multi-domain strategy /…/ to counter the escalating threats faced by Europe. This system should incorporate advanced anticipation of operations, active defence during attacks, and robust reactions to increase the cost of hostile behaviours.” It makes clear how important are: our intelligence services, our cyber security instruments, our internal security institutions in this system of hybrid defence. In her State of the Union address Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a European counter-hybrid playbook and the European Emergency Security Protocol. And that makes your important report also a very timely report. I am sure your report will play a key role in developing the counter hybrid playbook. And in all our efforts against hybrid warfare. But reports are written by people. I thank you again. We count on you, for this important mission: to help defend the hearts and minds of our people. And to deter Russian hybrid attacks by showing the power of our European hybrid defence. SPEECH/26/2242 <@rel_link@>
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