Western intelligence officials have warned that Europe is failing to counter Vladimir Putin's escalating "hybrid" war, as Germany opened a sabotage investigation after a fire damaged an electricity substation in Berlin. Defence sources quoted by the Financial Times said current measures deter conventional and nuclear threats but are inadequate against sub-Article 5 provocations, urging a fundamental rethink of Europe's approach. The warning comes amid a broader pattern of suspected sabotage, drone incursions and attacks on infrastructure across Germany, which Nato officials say Russia is deliberately calibrating to stay below the threshold that would trigger Nato's mutual defence clause.

The Berlin fire, in the Moabit district, damaged a construction site and part of a substation but caused no supply disruption; police are working with the grid operator to establish whether it was arson or a technical fault. Separately, authorities are hunting a 48-year-old suspected climate activist over a spate of substation attacks last week in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg targeting coal-fired power supplies. Germany has also formally blamed Russia for an explosive-laden drone found near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport in August, prompting Chancellor Friedrich Merz to say the country was increasingly "in the crosshairs of hybrid attackers". Officials also cited a fresh wave of Russian-linked sabotage against European defence manufacturers using local criminals, with one MP warning of possible future attacks on arms industry figures.