Putin pushes NATO to the brink after a Russian drone targets France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier during a tense Baltic operation. Sweden tracks the launch, NATO scrambles defenses, and the mission ends in humiliation for Moscow as the drone is jammed before reaching its target. With denials flying from the Kremlin and hybrid warfare escalating across Europe, this incident reveals a dangerous new phase in Russia’s strategy. But the real message is worse today.
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00:00Putin is pushing NATO's buttons. After a 2025 that saw Russia ramp up its hybrid strategy
00:06throughout Western Europe, Putin just crossed a major line. Russia has targeted a French
00:11aircraft carrier in a brazen display of contempt. But what happened next humiliated Moscow.
00:17Russia was caught out, and all eyes are on the Kremlin as it tries to squirm out of accepting
00:22responsibility for a failed attack that has gone up in smoke. On February 26th, a drone took off
00:28from a Russian ship as the vessel made its approach to a very specific target that was in the port
00:33of
00:33Malmo, Sweden. That target was France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, which is currently in
00:39Sweden as part of a NATO operation that we'll discuss in more detail later. Russia's drone
00:43headed toward the carrier, forcing a scramble from NATO to disable it before it arrived.
00:48According to United24 media, the Russian ship in question was a vessel named Zhigolevsk,
00:53which is part of Russia's Baltic fleet, and had been maneuvering around the Baltic Sea in the
00:57general vicinity of the Malmo port for some time. Sweden had been keeping tabs on the Zhigolevsk,
01:03and had sent one of its Tapper-class patrol vessels, the HSWMS RAP, to observe the vessel as
01:08it made its way through Baltic waters. In other words, Sweden saw all of this coming. Putin thought
01:14that his spy ship was being smart. However, what ended up happening is that Sweden watched Russia's
01:19drone launch, leaving no doubt as to who the culprit of the attack on the Charles de Gaulle was,
01:23and it has backed Russia into a corner. Putin can't claim that Russia didn't pull off this attack,
01:28but he'll try. As for the French carrier in question, the Charles de Gaulle would make for
01:33a very good target for Russia. That's why Putin ordered Russia's failed and humiliating drone attack.
01:38Russia is likely jealous that France even has an aircraft carrier that is capable of carrying up to
01:4240 aircraft, especially after Russia was forced to take its only aircraft carrier out of commission
01:47in 2025, following literal decades of failure that ultimately led to the carrier becoming a lame duck.
01:54Russia wanted to send a message with this attack, and thought that the message had gotten through,
01:58and we'll cover what that means toward the end of the video. It's a message that has been marred by
02:02the utter failure of Russia to cover its tracks. Russia was caught red-handed from the off,
02:07and what Sweden did in response capped the humiliation off for Putin and his cronies.
02:12According to the Telegraph, the Swedish military intercepted Russia's drone long before it even
02:16made it close to the Charles de Gaulle. The drone was confronted about six miles offshore,
02:20not by Swedish or NATO fighter jets, but by a jamming operation that sent the drone packing.
02:25The ultimate fate of the drone is unknown. It may have been forced to turn back and head to the
02:29Zhigolevskine disgrace, or it crashed out into the water miles away from Malmo. Either way,
02:35what we see here is an attempt by Russia to either launch an attack, or conduct surveillance against a
02:40French aircraft carrier that has crashed and burned before it ever had the chance of truly getting
02:44off the ground. The BBC also reported on Russia's failed attack, noting that several key figures
02:49have highlighted Russia's drone incursion for what it is, a ridiculous provocation. Those were the
02:54words used by France's foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barreau, who was on board the Charles de Gaulle when
02:59the attack happened. If indeed there is a potential Russian origin for this incident, the only conclusion
03:04I would draw is that it would be a ridiculous provocation, Barreau said. Sweden's prime minister,
03:09Ulf Christensen, who was also on board the French carrier, said that the entire incident was serious,
03:13though not especially unexpected, and that even without Russia being caught red-handed,
03:18everybody would have known who was behind the attack. It's a Russian way of acting that we
03:22recognize from other places, Christensen noted. This time, it's a Russian way of acting that has
03:27fallen flat on its face. Though it's clear that Russia targeting the Charles de Gaulle is supposed
03:31to be some sort of strategic signal, the fact that its drone only managed to travel for about a mile
03:36before it was jammed into oblivion tells us that Russia's latest hybrid tactic was overcooked.
03:41It also tells us that NATO is ready for what Russia has spent the last few years doing,
03:45and that Sweden, at the very least, has the sort of electronic equipment needed to stop
03:49Russia's drones in their tracks. The Charles de Gaulle remains untouched.
03:53Sweden was so successful with its interception of Russia's drone that nobody on board would have
03:57even known it had happened if Sweden hadn't publicized it. As for Russia, do you remember
04:02earlier when we told you that there was no way the Kremlin can try to weasel out of taking responsibility
04:06for what it's just done? Well, more for us because that's precisely what Russia is trying to do.
04:11According to a February 27th report in the Moscow Times, the Kremlin has rejected all Swedish claims
04:17that Russia launched a drone at the Charles de Gaulle. Putin's favorite mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov,
04:22labeled Sweden's claims as quite an absurd statement when asked about what had happened,
04:26and he went as far as to claim that Russia has no information about the drone incident.
04:30Of course it doesn't, Dmitry. Why would Russia want to say anything more about an attempted attack
04:36Swedish patrol boat crew literally watched Russia's drone launch from a Russian ship?
04:41After all, the Kremlin has a clear motive for sending the drone, as we'll cover in a few moments.
04:45As for Sweden, though it is clearly pointing the finger at Russia, it's still going about this
04:49incident methodically. It has outlined precisely what happened, with one of the country's armed
04:54forces spokespeople noting,
04:56A ship from the Swedish Navy observed a suspicious drone during a maritime patrol in the Strait of Orsund.
05:01In connection with the observation, the armed forces took countermeasures to disrupt the suspected drone.
05:06Contact with the drone was subsequently lost. This is a blunt and to-the-point message delivered to
05:11Russia that basically tells Putin that he tried and failed with his intimidation tactics.
05:16And now that the attack on the Charles de Gaulle is done, Sweden has announced the launch of an
05:20investigation into the entire incident under its Tiltredosforodningen, which is the Swedish law
05:25that governs the access that foreign ships have to the country's waters.
05:29So Sweden is being clear about how it intends to deal with Russia. The drone was taken out,
05:34and an investigation is underway that could lead to Russia's spy ship being in even more trouble.
05:39Sweden is also telling Putin that it saw all of this coming.
05:42On February 17th, just a week or so before the attack on the Charles de Gaulle,
05:46Thomas Nilsson, who is the head of Sweden's military intelligence,
05:49said the country had observed Russia as it stepped up its hybrid warfare campaign.
05:54Nilsson noted that Russia was
05:55constantly developing its capabilities and was ready to take greater risks and use them,
05:59including what I call advanced sabotage, including assassination plots, serious arson,
06:04and attacks on critical societal infrastructure.
06:07In other words, what Russia tried to do so brazenly with the Charles de Gaulle came as no surprise to
06:11Sweden's military intelligence. It saw all of this coming. That's likely why there was already a
06:16patrol boat deployed to watch the Zhigalevsk as it tried to prowl through the Baltic waters.
06:20And it's why Sweden shut down Russia's attack so quickly that it may as well have never happened.
06:25Still, Nilsson's points about Russia's ramping up of its hybrid strategy stand and deserve further
06:30exploration, so stick with us until the end, where we'll explore what Russia is doing and what it
06:35all means. But while we're on this, you are watching The Military Show. If you haven't subscribed
06:39yet, now is the perfect time to hit that button. Before we get to what Russia is doing and what
06:45it
06:45all means, there's the reason behind its attempt to send a drone to the Charles de Gaulle that we
06:49mentioned earlier in the video. You may have questions about a French aircraft carrier even
06:53being in Sweden in the first place. The little logic will tell you that the presence of the
06:56carrier in Malmö port probably has something to do with NATO, and you'd be right. The Charles de Gaulle
07:01is taking part in an operation that has a direct impact on Russia. Of course, NATO isn't going on
07:06the attack or anything like that, but what it is doing is conducting the Lafayette 26 mission in and
07:11around Sweden. That entire mission, which will include exercises conducted in the Baltic Sea,
07:16where the Zhigolevsk operates, has been designed by NATO as a multinational exercise where it will
07:21focus on deterring the threats presented to undersea cables. That's a clear message to Russia.
07:27Part of the hybrid campaign that Russia has launched involves sending spy ships to find the
07:31locations of these cables, which are critical for communication, and in some cases attempting to
07:36sever them. Back in December 2024, Finland even detained a Russian vessel as part of an investigation
07:41into an incident of cable severing, which is a sort of problem that makes Lafayette 26 such a vital
07:47mission. Beyond the cables, the United States Naval Institute says that Lafayette 26 has also been
07:53designed to help France and NATO boost their defense and deterrent posture against Russia,
07:58in addition to fostering collaboration between France and its NATO allies, along with strengthening
08:02Europe's borders. None of this is anything that Putin wants to see, and he especially didn't want to see the
08:08of Charles de Gaulle in Sweden as Lafayette 26 marks the first time that the carrier has journeyed to
08:13the country. What Russia is dealing with here is a display of NATO power that also targets some of
08:18the hybrid tactics and border incursions that Russia has been using to disrupt European NATO.
08:23So, Russia sent a spy ship and launched a drone from it to keep an eye on what was happening.
08:28Putin thought he was being sneaky, but he was humiliated instantly. Both the ship and the drone
08:33were spotted and have been dealt with, and Russia is going to be none the wiser about what happens
08:37during Lafayette 26, outside of what NATO shows Russia as part of its power projection tactics.
08:43Russia has egg on its face after February 26. However, that doesn't mean that what we saw on
08:47that day wasn't a dangerous sign of both things to come and of Russia's desire to maintain its hybrid
08:52warfare campaign against NATO. That brings us back to something we mentioned earlier about Russia
08:57ramping up its hybrid warfare campaign, and this latest attack is, at the very least, a sign that
09:02Russia is getting bolder with its strategies. After all, it came during the same week the
09:07Telegraph revealed that Russia has been sending migrants to European countries via a network of
09:11underground tunnels that stretch between Poland and Belarus. Those tunnels have already been
09:16used by almost 200 migrants to cross into the European Union or EU territory, and Polish officials
09:22believe that they were constructed by Middle Eastern specialists, likely as part of Russia's
09:27attempts to destabilize European nations by using migration as a weapon. The Henry Jackson
09:32Society highlights Russia's plan in a November 2025 piece, where it says that Russia is pushing
09:37desperate migrants toward EU nations, and when those nations refuse to take the growing swell of
09:42migrants in, the Kremlin attacks those countries for being intolerant to the needs of others. The
09:47migrants themselves aren't the aggressors, they are Putin's pawns, instruments that he uses to carry
09:52out Russian aggression through tactics that are designed to harm the EU and NATO members while still
09:57remaining under the threshold of a conventional war. It's a classic Russian propaganda play.
10:02And it, along with the attack on the Charles de Gaulle, showcases how varied Russia's hybrid
10:06warfare strategy has become. According to a February 20th piece by The Record, Dutch intelligence has
10:12also highlighted just how much Russia has been escalating its hybrid warfare approach. In addition to
10:17drones and migrants, Russia is also using a heady mix of cyber attacks, disinformation, espionage,
10:23sabotage, and hidden political influence to destabilize the nations that Putin believes
10:28present the biggest threat to the Russian vision for a version of Europe that, for all intents and
10:32purposes, would look something like it did back when the Soviet Union was in its prime. A sharp rise in
10:37these sorts of activities has been seen in Europe since 2023, the record says, and it notes that Russia
10:42is internally trying to frame what it's doing as a fight against what Dutch intelligence says Russia calls a
10:47decadent west and a unique Russian federation that is only concerned with its own survival.
10:53There you have it then. It's well known that nations that are just trying to survive start brutal
10:57multi-year wars against other countries. That's the survival instinct in action. Powerful countries
11:03attack those that they perceive as weaker just so they can keep going. The Russian framing of what
11:08the country is doing is all nonsense. However, it's what Putin and his cronies are using to justify their
11:13attacks against NATO, the EU, and countries that were formerly part of the Soviet bloc,
11:17such as Ukraine. And the worrying thing for the west is that this all implies that Putin is being
11:22driven, or at least pretending to be driven, by an ideology rather than a simple desire for conquest.
11:28Ideologues are always difficult to dissuade due to their blind adherence to their own philosophy,
11:32which ultimately means that the already escalated hybrid warfare that Russia is conducting is only
11:37going to get worse. We'll return to that idea in a minute or two. First, let's come back to how
11:41Russia
11:41launched its drone at the Charles de Gaulle. At first glance, this seems like a unique way for
11:46Russia to launch a drone attack. After all, the Ukraine war has shown us that Russia can launch
11:50these drones from almost anywhere on its own territory, which raises the question of why it
11:54would send a ship into Baltic waters to do the job. One of the answers to that question might be
11:59that
11:59Russia's drones aren't capable of traveling to Sweden. That's certainly a possibility. Though drones
12:04like Russia's Garand II can travel between 1,800 and 2,500 kilometers, or around 1,120 to 1,550
12:11miles,
12:11which means they could reach Sweden if launched from the right location in Russia. A far more
12:16likely answer though is that Russia wanted to launch from a ship because it's a strategy that
12:20it's used before to send a message to the west. The difference this time is that Russia used a
12:24spy ship that is part of its military's navy rather than the Shadow Fleet ships that it's used in the
12:29past. Both the Guardian and the Kiev Independent have reported on Russia's use of Shadow Fleet ships
12:34for what its spy ships are now apparently doing. Back in September, the latter noted that Shadow Fleet
12:39oil tankers were being used as launch and control points for drones that Russia was sending into
12:44the airspace of European cities. The Guardian's report said the same thing and carried a quote
12:48from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky who said,
12:50Currently, Russians are using tankers not only to earn money for the war,
12:54but also for reconnaissance and even sabotage activities. What we saw on February 26th was different.
12:59With the Shadow Fleet, Russia already has a massive collection of ships that numbers roughly 1,468,
13:05according to the BBC and tankertrackers.com. If Russia is now bringing legitimate military
13:11naval assets into the mix, the humiliation of its February 26th attack on the Charles de Gaulle is
13:15compounded. A spy ship failed to do what Shadow Fleet tankers have been doing for months. Still,
13:21even with that failure, the fact that Russia used a warship instead of a civilian vessel in this latest
13:25attack demonstrates that things are indeed only going to get worse in the hybrid war that Russia is
13:30waging. Russia may be stepping out of the grey zone. Unsuccessfully, we might add, but still,
13:35Russia using a spy ship to target the Charles de Gaulle suggests that the country is taking a step
13:39closer to moving away from using tactics that are below the threshold of war and into tactics that
13:44lead to a much more conventional confrontation. This is all part of the Russian plan, at least
13:49according to a February 5th report by the Belfer Center. That organization predicts that the next
13:54three years will see Russia gradually escalate its grey zone campaign until it reaches the point where
13:59it's ready to conduct a military incursion into NATO's northeastern flank. That excursion might see
14:05Russia try to seize a border area on NATO's northeastern flank in a flash attack, with Putin's
14:09goal likely being to take advantage of the confusion that results to fortify in whatever that border
14:14region might be as NATO members try to organize their response. This is worrying for NATO and the
14:19future of Europe. A jammed drone launched at an aircraft carrier is indeed an incident that has seen
14:24Russia fail. It's humiliating for Putin, but it's also not the last of this sort of thing that we're
14:29going to see. If the Belfer Center is correct, the hybrid campaign is only going to get worse from here.
14:34Russia is going to become more direct with its threats and hybrid attacks. It's going to keep
14:39doing things like using its military assets to threaten NATO's northeastern flank. On February
14:4326th, Sweden was a step ahead of Putin. NATO as a collective needs to make sure that it follows the
14:49lead of one of its newest members. Russia's humiliation is a sign of what's to come. NATO has to be
14:54ready
14:54for much more. In the wake of the Russian attack on the Charles de Gaulle, NATO has already heightened
14:59surveillance in the Baltic Sea and intensified maritime and coastal monitoring. These are
15:03good steps, but we would argue that they can't be temporary. NATO must meet each of Russia's hybrid
15:08escalations with escalations of its own to send back a clear message to the Kremlin as it tries to
15:13talk tough through its actions. NATO sees what Putin is doing and it will stop everything that Russia
15:18tries in its tracks. There's also an argument to be made that the attack on the Charles de Gaulle was
15:23personal for Putin. Though it is Sweden that grabbed all of the headlines for its response on February
15:2826th, it was only a couple of weeks before that France did something so legitimately insane for
15:32Ukraine that it had to get under Putin's skin. Find out what that was by watching our video,
15:37which explains why France is willingly turning itself into a target for Russia
15:41through its cooperation with Ukraine. And if you enjoyed this video, be sure to subscribe to
15:45The Military Show for more coverage of the latest developments in Russia's hybrid warfare
15:49campaign against NATO. And thank you as always for watching.
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