CIA warns Europe: Russia may attack targets in Italy, France and Spain with drones

The United States has informed a group of European countries of the possibility of a Russian escalation, which would involve drone strikes against targets in Italy, France or Spain.

Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” reports that Washington’s secret services have uncovered data about Moscow’s possible plans and have shared them with European governments.

According to these reports, the unmanned aerial vehicles could be launched from merchant ships sailing in the Mediterranean Sea and kept hidden in containers. Sources close to Lithuania’s Ministry of Defense told “El Mundo” that the model suspected to be used is the Gerbera drone, which is said to have a range of up to 600 kilometers.

The warning is linked in the report to the visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow on August 25. After this visit, information about a possible attack scenario was distributed to a number of European countries.

However, Italy has reacted cautiously to this claim. Sources cited by ANSA news agency have said that so far there has been no alarm at the operational level, while Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated that the claim has not been confirmed.

This development comes at a time when European countries are paying more attention to hybrid threats and drone incidents, including cases that have been recently reported in the European area.