Russian Strike on European Arms Factory Would Trigger Article 5, EU Defense Chief Says

A Russian strike on a weapons factory in a European NATO country would trigger the alliance’s mutual defense clause, EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.He made the remarks to TVP World on the sidelines of a meeting of the European Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee in Brussels on Thursday, Oct. 1. Only a day earlier, Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that European factories producing weapons for Ukraine could become military targets.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.“I would say if Russia will hit our factories in European territory, that would be Article 5,” Kubilius said.NATO’s Article 5 treats an armed attack against one NATO member as an attack against all, requiring allies to come to the targeted country’s assistance. Twenty-three of the EU’s 27 members are also NATO members.Moscow’s threatsOn Wednesday, Sept. 30, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that weapons factories in European countries that produce arms for Ukraine are possible military targets for Russia.Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the threat at the Valdai Discussion Club forum held on Thursday, saying Russia was monitoring European factories supplying Kyiv.“I am not saying that we are going to strike enterprises in the countries supplying weapons to Ukraine, but this is a threat,” Putin said.In August, Bloomberg reported that the Kremlin increasingly views Ukrainian strikes as attacks by NATO itself because alliance members are supplying Kyiv with intelligence and weapons. Other Topics of Interest Putin Raises Nuclear Threat Over Kaliningrad, Says Russia Monitors Arms Factories in Europe Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Moscow will not attack anyone in 2029, 2030 or 2050 but would respond if attacked. Comments likely to stir unease within NATOAn aide to Kubilius confirmed that the commissioner was referring specifically to an aerial bombardment or missile attack on a factory, Politico reported on Thursday.Nevertheless, Kubilius’ statement is likely to cause unease within NATO, given the sensitivity of discussions around Article 5 and the EU’s on-military role compared with the alliance.“When Kubilius will become secretary general of NATO he might be able to claim what triggers or doesn’t trigger Article 5,” a NATO diplomat told the outlet.Suspicious incidents at arms factoriesKubilius’ warnings come amid a growing number of incidents at arms factories across Europe, some of which have been attributed to Russia.On Sept. 29, Estonia said Russian intelligence services ordered an August arson attack on Milrem Robotics, a Tallinn-based defense company whose unmanned ground vehicles are used by Ukrainian Defense Forces.However, the Kremlin rejected the accusation – as it did after an explosive-laden drone was found at Germany’s Leipzig-Halle Airport in August and following other suspected Russian drone and sabotage incidents in Europe.According to Politico, Poland, Slovakia and other countries are also investigating similar incidents.Rising tensions with NATOThe exchange follows months of escalation between the Kremlin and Europe.On Monday, Sept. 28, Russia’s embassy in Belgium said it had delivered a position to NATO’s International Secretariat and Belgium’s Foreign Ministry warning that Moscow was ready to deploy its entire arsenal if alliance members tried to isolate the Kaliningrad exclave.The embassy also accused NATO of an aggressive policy, without specifying which actions had prompted the warning.NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said the alliance had replied to the informal document, condemning Moscow’s “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric” and reiterating that NATO is exclusively a defensive alliance.Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened that Lithuania would disappear from the map if it lifted its ban on nuclear weapons on Sept. 11, claiming that NATO would not invoke Article 5 as that would lead to a “global catastrophe.”Separately on Sept. 25, Putin repeated unfounded claims about the mistreatment of Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic states, the same argument the Kremlin used to justify its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Meanwhile, NATO officials increasingly warn that Moscow’s nuclear signaling is a part of a broader campaign of hybrid pressure, including sabotage, cyberattacks, electronic interference and drone incursions, aimed at weakening Western support for Ukraine.Several member states have already stopped referring to the attacks as “hybrid,” instead calling them direct attacks.During his final press conference at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that European calls to prepare for a possible war with Russia could become a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” while simultaneously dismissing warnings of a Russian attack on Europe as “nonsense.”NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Wednesday that NATO’s combined strength exceeds Russia’s and that he does not take the nuclear threats seriously.During the same summit in Brussels, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev warned that Putin retains a “nuclear trump card” and called for increased diplomatic efforts to reduce the risk of escalation.Kubilius rejected that approach, saying past diplomacy with Moscow had failed and called for a tougher European response to Russia’s hybrid attacks. 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