Liudmyla Zhernovska19:52, 08.05.25

The country’s intelligence does not suggest that Putin could start a new war right now.

If Russia maintains its political appetite for war and the pace of military production, then after the end of the war in Ukraine it may be ready for a new military conflict within a year,

This was stated in an interview with Politico by the head of the country’s military intelligence, Vice Admiral Peter Risenk. According to him, Moscow is intensifying hybrid attacks against the Netherlands and its European allies, and is also constantly building up its military potential for a potential new conflict.

In particular, Moscow, with the help of allies, is producing much more artillery than it needs to wage war against Ukraine, and is also transferring new artillery units to NATO borders, including the Baltic countries and Finland:

“The Netherlands, like the rest of NATO, is in a phase of a heightened readiness program to make sure we are ready if this happens.”

According to the Netherlands, last June, Russians attempted to disrupt the European elections by carrying out cyberattacks on websites and public transport systems linked to Dutch political parties.

“We have information about Russian interference in various elections, and not only through disinformation. This concerns several countries, and these are mainly countries that were previously under Russian influence,” the intelligence chief explained.

At the same time, he believes that the threat from the People’s Republic of China may be even more serious – last year, the Chinese cyber group Salt Typhoon infiltrated the largest telecommunications providers in the United States for at least a year. According to Risenk, Beijing has targeted about 10 European countries in total.

“China has a very complex, organized cyber system. And we are not able to fully understand what they can do. I would say it is more threatening than Russia,” the vice admiral noted.

The Netherlands is also concerned that Donald Trump’s administration has taken a course to strengthen political control over its intelligence services by cutting funding, removing dissenters, and appointing loyalists to key positions.

“It’s not a very comfortable signal from the US when you see that the leadership of the intelligence services on their side… well, forced to look for other jobs. It was a good look in the mirror for Europe and the role we have to play for ourselves,” Risenk emphasized.

He noted that cooperation between European and American intelligence agencies remains strong and mutually beneficial, but they cannot turn a blind eye to the current situation, so they will probably have to reassess their intelligence sharing with Washington.

(C)UNIAN 2025