Across Europe in the autumn of 2026, a security paradox has taken hold: Russian sabotage operations against critical infrastructure are rising in frequency and coordination, yet intelligence assessments consistently find no immediate preparation for conventional military assault on NATO territory. The threat is real but diffuse — cable cuts, cyberattacks, and infrastructure disruptions that fall beneath the threshold of war while exceeding the bounds of ordinary espionage. European leaders are being asked to defend against something that does not announce itself as an invasion, but accumulates