Africa-Press – Nigeria. Russia didn’t even wait an hour before exploding over comments by NATO’s highest-ranking military officer, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone – who said the alliance could consider a “pre-emptive strike” as a defensive response to Russian hybrid attacks.
Meaning: if Moscow keeps waging cyber sabotage, energy disruption, election interference and drone harassment, NATO might hit first.
That’s not a throwaway line. That’s doctrine-level vocabulary.
And Russia treated it exactly like that.
Maria Zakharova – the Kremlin’s flamethrower-in-chief – called the remark:
“Extremely irresponsible… a deliberate move toward escalation.”
She accused NATO of trying to sabotage any remaining diplomatic efforts around Ukraine, and warned the alliance to “understand the risks and consequences” – Kremlin code for: don’t test us.
The subtext is obvious:
NATO is quietly redefining “defense” to include early action against hybrid warfare.
Russia is loudly pretending hybrid warfare isn’t its entire operating system.
And both sides are inching closer to a zone where miscommunication becomes catastrophe.
Hybrid escalation is the new nuclear brinkmanship – fuzzier, faster, and easier to misread.
One stray drone, one hacked pipeline, one ambiguous cyberattack, and suddenly NATO’s doctrine is quoting Cavo Dragone while Russia quotes Zakharova.
If this feels like Cold War language with Internet speeds – that’s exactly what it is.
For More News And Analysis About Nigeria Follow Africa-Press
