PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron warned on Friday of the growing threat posed by Moscow’s shadow operations across Europe, saying he had ordered measures to protect France’s critical infrastructure from Russian “hybrid attacks”.

Macron also vowed that Russia’s attacks on French soil would not go unanswered, speaking after talks with presidential hopefuls and party leaders ahead of the April-May election. “The Russian hybrid threat against Europeans and against France has intensified,” Macron told journalists.

The meeting with France’s political leaders, held in the Elysee Palace’s crisis room, was intended to brief attendees on confidential French intelligence assessments of the current security challenges.

Nicolas Lerner, head of France’s foreign intelligence service DGSE, and Celine Berthon, head of France’s domestic intelligence agency DGSI, attended. Also present were more than a dozen presidential hopefuls and other senior politicians including centrists Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal as well as Jordan Bardella, head of the far-right National Rally party.

Two key presidential contenders skip security briefing

The National Rally’s presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who is leading in the polls, and hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon were absent. Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv’s European allies, including France, have raised the alarm about “hybrid attacks” linked to Russia.

The attacks have fallen below the threshold of open warfare, but have included drone flights near sensitive sites, airspace violations, and cyberattacks.

‘We are not intimidated’

This month Berlin blamed Moscow for an incident at Leipzig airport, which the European Union said bore all the hallmarks of “state-sponsored terrorism”. The drone episode underscored an apparent escalation in the tactics Russia is willing to employ on Nato soil.

Macron said he had ordered “the government to prepare a plan to protect our critical infrastructure” and the “most sensitive” defence industry and technology sites against drone and cyberattacks.

He added that France’s interior minister had met regional prefects to step up vigilance. Macron said that despite the Russian threats, France would continue to support Ukraine and vowed that Paris would respond to Russia’s shadow attacks.

“This will not go unanswered,” Macron said, without elaborating. “The intention behind it is to intimidate us and to derail the effort to support the Ukrainians. The consequence will be the opposite,” he said.

“We are not intimidated, because we know that what is at stake today in Ukraine is our security.” Berthon, France’s top domestic spy, made a rare appearance at a business forum in August, saying the Leipzig incident signalled French companies could also be targeted.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2026