France, Germany and the Netherlands are summoning Russia’s ambassadors in a coordinated diplomatic response to what European governments describe as a wide-ranging cyber campaign orchestrated by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that Paris would also impose sanctions on nine individuals and four entities, while Berlin and Amsterdam confirmed they had called in Russian envoys to protest hostile cyber operations. The European Union and the United Kingdom simultaneously unveiled their own restrictive measures: the EU blacklisted nine individuals and four entities, including officers of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU), and London sanctioned 24 individuals and entities for what it called destructive cyber and hybrid operations.

Viewed from Paris, Berlin and Brussels, the campaign forms part of an intensifying pattern of Russian hybrid warfare across the continent. The EU’s formal statement condemned a “malicious cyber ecosystem” that it said spans state and non-state actors, from intelligence services to cybercriminal groups and hacktivists. According to European officials, the attacks targeted government ministries, companies and service operators in at least ten member states—including Poland, Romania, Finland and the Baltic nations—with the dual aim of espionage and sabotage. Barrot cited the disruption of railway infrastructure in Poland as one concrete example, while Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berndsen noted that Russian cyber activities included compromising privately owned cameras along military transport routes.

In Moscow, officials have dismissed the accusations as unsubstantiated. President Vladimir Putin, speaking in early June, characterised such claims as a Western attempt to justify aggressive designs against Russia. The Russian foreign ministry has not yet issued a formal statement on the latest summons, but state media described the French move as lacking evidence. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, reacting to the parallel summit of Ukraine’s allies in Paris, labelled the Coalition of the Willing a “coalition of warmongers” and said Moscow would monitor its actions closely.

The diplomatic escalation unfolds as the EU works to finalise its 21st package of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, and as France hosts a gathering of Kyiv’s supporters. The ambassadors are expected to be summoned in the coming days, and the new designations will be formalised through EU and national legal instruments. The episode adds to a series of alleged Russian hybrid operations—including a foiled cyberattack on a Swedish thermal power plant and an FSB-linked plot against Poland’s energy grid—that, according to several NATO allies, place Europe in a grey zone between peace and open conflict.