What Is Hybrid Warfare? How Is Russia Employing It in the War in Ukraine?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was visible to the world in news reports that included eyewitness accounts and images of missile strikes shared on television and social media. By contrast, a cyberattack around that time on satellite systems used by Ukraine to coordinate troop and drone movements — systems that also provided broadband service to more than 100,000 internet users in at least 13 countries across Europe and North Africa — was cloaked in mystery for weeks. To this day Russia’s government denies any involvement in it.

Such is the nature of the modern form of combat known as hybrid warfare, which marries unambiguous brute force with stealth, subterfuge and heaps of plausible deniability.