EU’s top diplomat warns that Russia has a plan for long-term aggression against Europe

Russia poses a direct threat to the European Union through acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, but its massive military spending suggests that President Vladimir Putin also plans to use his armed forces elsewhere in the future, the EU’s top diplomat warned yesterday.

“Russia is already a direct threat to the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She listed a series of Russian airspace violations, provocative military exercises, and attacks on energy grids, pipelines and undersea cables.

Kallas noted that Russia is already spending more on defense than the EU’s 27 nations combined, and this year will invest more “on defense than its own health care, education and social policy combined.”

“This is a long-term plan for a long-term aggression. You don’t spend that much on (the) military, if you do not plan to use it,” Kallas told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France.

“Europe is under attack and our continent sits in a world becoming more dangerous,” she added.

The acts of sabotage and cyberattacks are mostly aimed at undermining European support for Ukraine, military officers and experts have said.