European security officials are increasingly alarmed that the continent is falling behind in its efforts to counter Vladimir Putin’s expanding “hybrid” warfare campaign, as Germany opens a sabotage probe after another fire broke out at an electrical substation.

Defence sources cited by the Financial Times said Nato allies in Europe must move quickly to create stronger tools and strategies to blunt what they describe as the Kremlin’s intensifying campaign of disruption against the alliance.

“It is completely clear that we aren’t doing enough to deter sub-Article 5 provocations,” one official told the newspaper, referring to hostile acts that fall below the threshold for Nato’s collective defence clause.

The source added that while Western deterrence has so far been sufficient to prevent Russia from escalating into conventional or nuclear conflict, Europe “really need[s] to rethink” how it responds to hybrid threats.

The warning comes after a blaze damaged a power substation in Berlin on Monday, marking the latest in a series of suspicious incidents affecting critical infrastructure in Germany.

Authorities were investigating whether it was caused by sabotage or a technical fault, German police said.

Meanwhile, police are hunting a suspected militant climate activist accused of a string of attacks on substations across Germany last week that sought to cut supplies from coal-fired power plants.

In the Berlin incident, emergency services were alerted to the blaze in the Moabit area in the early hours.

‘A construction site and part of the substation were burning and were damaged by the fire,’ police said, adding there was no disruption to supply.

They were investigating with the help of the grid operator whether the fire was arson or caused by a technical fault.

Attacks on substations took place last week in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the west, and Brandenburg in the east, which did not cause major blackouts but led to temporary shutdowns of some equipment at power plants.

Police are hunting a 48-year-old who has sent letters claiming responsibility for the acts as a protest against the fossil-fuel industry.

Germany has been hit by a number of attacks on the power grid in recent months, with far-left militants claiming responsibility in some cases. 

However, authorities are also on alert for Russia-linked sabotage plots.

Last week, Germany formally blamed Russia for an incident involving an explosive-laden drone at a strategic airport last month.

Nato member Germany, which supports Ukraine in its fight against Russia, has long accused Moscow of targeting it with a campaign of hybrid attacks involving espionage and sabotage – charges denied by Russia.

Germany has for months reported suspicious drone sightings over military and industrial sites, but the Leipzig incident on the night of August 4 raised the alarm as a drone found there carried explosives.

Police used a robot to defuse the device found near a Ukrainian cargo plane, and another drone was reportedly found weeks later near the airport, also with traces of an explosive substance.

The airport in eastern Germany plays a key role in the transport of military goods, including by the German military and Nato allies, and also serves as a base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines.

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Chancellor Friedrich Merz later said Germany had increasingly ‘found itself in the crosshairs of hybrid attackers’.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius earlier warned that the Kremlin is particularly focused on his country.

And German MP Roderich Kiesewetter said: ‘We will also probably see the announcement of killings against high representatives of our armaments industry.’ 

In recent weeks, Russia has launched a new wave of attacks targeting European defence manufacturers, using local criminals to carry out acts of sabotage, according to Western intelligence sources.

Officials believe the attacks have been carefully calibrated to stop short of triggering Article 5, Nato’s mutual defence clause.

‘We are clearly seeing a manifestation of Russia’s increased risk tolerance and recklessness,’ said a senior official from a Nato frontline state, citing ‘unprecedented levels’ of Russian activity. 

Speaking to the FT, Keir Giles, associate fellow at Chatham House, added: ‘I don’t think Russia’s objectives and targets [in Europe] have changed.’ 

 ‘The change is with [us], the victim. The problem is that what counts as Article 5 has a fuzzy boundary,’ said Giles. ‘For as long as that boundary is unset, Russia can keep on expanding it. If we don’t demonstrate a cost, then they will keep on pushing.’ 

Moscow has already been accused of waging a shadow war across Europe through sabotage, cyber attacks, drones, disinformation and intimidation – tactics designed to cause disruption while staying below the threshold for a military response.

Russian cyber units have targeted critical systems including power plants since at least the mid-2010s.

On the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a cyber attack against the Viasat satellite internet system caused outages across central and eastern Europe. The EU, US and UK later condemned the attack as Russian.

Nordic and Baltic countries have also recently reported increased GPS jamming and spoofing since 2022, affecting civilian aircraft, ships and drones.

British spy chief Anne Keast-Butler has warned that the UK and its allies now occupy ‘a space between peace and war’, with Russian activity stretching ‘from the seabed to cyberspace’.

And security experts have told UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to be prepared for a ‘direct response’ from Putin following his declaration of Britain’s ‘unwavering’ support for Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces.

Former British Army commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon warned: ‘Putin is fighting for his political survival. Russia is building bases specifically to launch drones into Nato territory. 

‘The assumption that Putin is too committed to Ukraine to contemplate opening another front is clearly wrong.

‘Russia is stepping up its hybrid war against the West. Britain and her allies are experiencing espionage, sabotage and other malign activities. Much of this activity is never publicised as it is thwarted by our outstanding security services.

‘The grey zone attacks may be a precursor for a direct attack, perhaps in the Baltics or along the Lithuania-Polish border. While Latvia and Estonia present tempting targets.

‘Putin may be bluffing. He may neither have the capability nor the appetite for a wider war. But if there is even a chance that he is preparing to test Nato, Europe cannot afford to discover the answer the hard way.’

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II has been taken to hospital for the third time this year after doctors discovered a new blood clot in her hip area, along with mild dehydration.

The 86-year-old former monarch, who stepped down from the throne two years ago, was admitted to Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen on September 6. She is expected to stay there for the next several days while she receives treatment and remains under observation.

In a statement, the Danish Royal House said Queen Margrethe is in “good spirits and, given the circumstances, is doing well”.

The unexpected hospital admission means Margrethe will no longer be able to attend the funeral of Norway’s King Harald V on Wednesday, despite earlier plans for her to be present.

Margrethe, who was known for many years as a heavy smoker, remains a widely admired figure in Denmark, credited with gently modernising the Danish monarchy. In recent years, however, the former queen has endured a series of health setbacks.

In May, she was hospitalised after doctors discovered a ‘significant accumulation of blood in the hip area following a fall’.

It came just two weeks after the Danish royal underwent an angioplasty, a medical procedure that opens up closed or narrowed blood vessels, after suffering chest pains.

Margrethe stepped down from the throne in January 2024 due to a major back operation, passing the crown to her son, King Frederik X.

But she still plays a significant role in public life in Denmark. Earlier this year, she chided current monarch Queen Mary after she crouched down to stroke a dog at a royal event.

In the family’s first outing following the death of Mary’s father, John Dalgleish Donaldson, a Scottish-Australian academic, the 54-year-old joined Margrethe’s 86th birthday celebrations at Fredensborg Palace.

The mother-of-four, dressed in a smart, navy suit, stood alongside her husband, King Frederik, Margrethe and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, Margrethe’s sister, as they waved to well-wishers gathered outside the palace.

It was at this point that Margrethe’s dog, Tilia, appeared and sat down in front of the royal party. Noticing her, Mary bent down to stroke the dachshund.

According to a translation from Hello, however, it was met with disapproval from Margrethe, who shook her head and said: ‘I don’t think this is the right time for that.’

Her comment led Mary to stop abruptly.

It was reminiscent of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Margrethe’s distant cousin, scolding Prince William in 2016 on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during Trooping the Colour.

The late monarch was seen tapping William on the arm and gesturing him to stand up as he crouched down to tend to a boisterous Prince George. Close examination of the moment appeared to show Queen Elizabeth saying: ‘Stand up William.’

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William rose to his feet, looking rather sheepish over the public telling off from his then 90-year-old grandmother.

At the time of her abdication, Queen Margrethe was the longest-serving monarch in Europe following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.

‘The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about the future – whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,’ she said in her speech.

‘I have decided that now is the right time. On January 14, 2024, 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father, I will step down as Queen of Denmark.

‘I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.’

Born in 1940, Margrethe has, throughout her life, enjoyed broad support from Danes, who are fond of her tactful yet creative personality.

In 2022, the monarch hit the headlines when she removed royal titles from the four children of her younger son Prince Joachim in an effort to downsize and modernise the Danish royal family, as well as to give her grandchildren the chance to shape their own lives free from royal duties.

She enjoyed a close relationship with her third cousin Queen Elizabeth II, both descendants of Queen Victoria, having bonded during several state visits to each other’s countries over the decades – most recently in 2000, when Margrethe was received at Windsor.

The six-feet-tall Margrethe has been one of the most popular public figures in Denmark. She often walked the streets of Copenhagen virtually unescorted and won the admiration of Danes for her warm manners and for her talents as a linguist – beside her native Danish, she spoke four other languages – and as a theatre and film set and costume designer.

She ascended the throne on January 15, 1972, after the death of her father, King Frederik IX.

The eldest of three daughters, she was not destined to become heir presumptive until she entered her teens, when, in 1953, Denmark’s constitution was amended to allow women to inherit the throne.

That followed a referendum in which more than 85 per cent of participants voted to allow female succession.

She married French diplomat Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat, later styled as Prince Henrik, in 1967, with whom she had two sons, Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim. Six years older than her, he died eight years ago at the age 83.

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Dozens of anti-migrant protesters entered the water off Portsmouth as 140 asylum seekers, rescued from an overcrowded large dinghy that had been permitted to depart France, were brought ashore.

The demonstrators ran across Eastney Beach and into the Solent yesterday afternoon, shouting “stop the boats” and “enough is enough” as the migrants arrived aboard a British coastguard vessel.

The scenes marked the second significant anti-migrant protest in the UK in as many days, following Saturday’s disruption that forced the Port of Dover to close.

More than 500 protesters had assembled along the Hampshire shoreline, with some wading into the sea about four miles from Britain’s main Royal Navy base in Portsmouth to object to the migrants’ arrival and call for them to be sent back to France.

The large dinghy had departed from Normandy, an indication that people-smuggling gangs may be widening their launch sites along as much as 200 miles of the French coast from Calais in an effort to avoid enforcement operations.

But rather than intervene, the French coastguard shadowed the vessel for ten hours, claiming it was too dangerous because of the number of people on board.

British lifeboats, supported by a helicopter and a plane, then took over and brought the migrants to the UK.

Following calls to action on social media, hundreds arrived vowing to stop the migrants being transported by coach to a processing centre in Kent. Protesters spent at least five hours on the beach and in the water.

The crowd, which grew to more than 500 people, later tried to block the only road out to stop coachloads of migrants leaving, leading to clashes with police as riot officers were deployed.

The demonstration continued until 3am on Monday, when police threatened arrests after a dispersal order was imposed.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘The last 24 hours have seen multiple violations of the UK border by mega dinghies full of illegal immigrants which the French authorities have allowed to depart.

‘Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood have been boasting about French action, but hundreds of illegal immigrants arriving in just a few hours shows this is not working 

‘Their weak approach is leaving our border wide open, with almost 20,000 illegal immigrants crossing so far this year. Only rough seas have prevented even more crossings.’ 

The Tory police and crime commissioner for Hampshire has said it is a ‘significant issue’ for the Government if people traffickers shift their destinations across England’s south coast away from Dover.

Government minister Emma Reynolds today called the 500 protesters ‘thuggish and intimidating’.

The Treasury Chief Secretary said: ‘I absolutely support people’s right to peaceful protest. But this crosses a line and I just want to take the opportunity to thank the police and other emergency services who have brought this under control.’

Eastney is close to the Port of Portsmouth and the HM Naval Base, home to six Royal Navy destroyers and its two flagship aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

In protest footage shared on social media, a riot officer appeared to be pushed from his motorbike as demonstrators, many wearing caps and hoods, shouted: ‘Shame on you.’

Further clips showed officers carrying shields ordering the crowd to ‘get back’ before pushing some protesters away from a nearby police van.

The demonstrators remained in the area until almost midnight amid chaotic scenes and multiple clashes with officers near the waterfront.

The protest is thought to have been spearheaded by Daniel Thomas, the Tommy Robinson associate from Portsmouth whose Patriot Platform group organised a mass demonstration in Dover on Saturday.

Livestreaming the protest Thomas – also known as Danny Tommo – said: ‘It was only yesterday (in Dover) when we warned them that we will not accept this any more, and that it is no longer an option to tell us the boat numbers are down.

‘This isn’t about the numbers being down. This is about understanding that this has to come to an end now.’

However, unlike in Dover, the hundreds of protesters this time chose not to wear masks or balaclavas, although many were dressed in black.

The dinghy arrived on British shores after setting off from the Bay of the Seine, Normandy. After shadowing for ten hours, the French coastguard had apparently deemed it unsafe to stop the boat on water during what is thought to have been one of the longest Channel crossings ever. 

HM Coastguard sent two lifeboats, a coastguard helicopter, a fixed-wing aircraft  and rescue teams to ensure the asylum seekers reached the British shore safely. 

And in others, riot officers appear to be sprayed with water from super-soakers as dozens watching on record them on their phones. 

Thomas, who livestreamed the event on YouTube, was heard urging his supporters to ‘get in your cars and get down here’ as he stood waist-deep in the sea.

Separate footage meanwhile appeared to show a woman delivering supplies to protesters via canoe. 

The authorities in France have said that it is unusual for a migrant boat to depart from the Bay of the Seine, located some 170 miles from the usual launches in Calais.

A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman said: ‘In response to a report on September 6 of a small boat heading towards the Hampshire coast, HM Coastguard sent lifeboats, an HM Coastguard helicopter, an HM Coastguard aeroplane and HM Coastguard Rescue Teams. 

‘Border Force, Border Security Command, Hampshire Police and South Central Ambulance Service were also sent.’

Clips posted online later showed people being ushered off lifeboats to shore, where they were met by several buses.  

Cllr George Madgwick, leader of Reform UK in Hampshire, wrote in a post on X that ‘over 100 migrant men’ had arrived in Portsmouth.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage meanwhile posted: ‘A boat launched from Baie de Seine, 170 miles from Calais, arrived on the beaches of Hampshire for the very first time. This is a joke. Only Reform will send the boats back.’

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s police and crime commissioner Donna Jones said officers from other forces had to come to help – and fears that this ‘is just the start’ of protests.

She said: ‘Last night we had mutual aid, public order police officers sent from police forces across the country including the Metropolitan Police Service.

‘We also had a number of our own police officers, obviously, from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary trying to take back control of the roads, forming a line and holding a few hundred protesters back.

‘This is just the start, if this continues, these numbers will grow from the protesters.

‘They were making their point that they don’t want Portsmouth to become a destination’.

She said it will be a ‘significant issue’ for the Government if people traffickers shift their destinations across England’s south coast. 

The crossing to Portsmouth came in the same week Prime Minister Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron met to discuss how to ‘scale up’ efforts to reduce small boat crossings. 

Only last month, a small boat carrying record numbers of migrants – believed to be more than 230 – successfully crossed the English Channel. 

And earlier this week hundreds of anti-migrant protesters donning balaclavas brought the Port of Dover to a standstill. Demonstrators were chanting ‘stop the boats’ while blocking many of the town’s roads. 

Some of those in attendance claimed links to Thomas’s anti-migrant Patriot Platform. 

Kent Police were thought to have been ‘unaware’ that the protest was taking place, leaving them ‘thin on the ground’ as hundreds marched the streets of the town.  

Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover and Deal and former Home Office minister, said: ‘I will be looking urgently on Monday to ask questions around why we didn’t know about this, because we do tend to know when protests are coming to the area, and they tend to be peaceful, and laws aren’t broken, and obviously the police have the resources to manage that.

‘But in this instance, it would appear that the police didn’t know about it, and the resources were pretty thin on the ground, to be quite honest from what I saw. We know that laws were broken because they were blocking the roads and wearing face coverings.’

In response, Kent Police told the Daily Mail it was a ‘spontaneous event and was policed accordingly’. 

Police made no arrests and escorted the protesters to Dover Priory train station at around midday.

At least 100 people were seen boarding a train to Ramsgate, with some since spotted in nearby Sandwich where ‘police are in attendance’.

Hard-Right Patriot Platform was founded earlier this year by Daniel Thomas, a convicted kidnapper and associate of Tommy Robinson.

Sharing clips of the protest in Dover to his social media, Thomas wrote: ‘It’s time. Protect Our Country! And more importantly, our women and children! This is our warning.’

A government spokesman said: ‘We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we are seeing tonight.

‘The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross a line into disorder.

‘We thank the emergency services who are working to safely manage this situation.’

Hampshire Constabulary said: ‘This evening, we have been working alongside and assisting our partners from Border Force, Maritime & Coastguard Agency and Portsmouth City Council at Eastney Marina following the arrival of a boat crossing the channel.

‘We have officers in the area to ensure the prevention of any disorder. We ask that people please avoid the area. A dispersal order is in place until tomorrow evening. Anyone who refuses to comply with the direction to leave the area is liable for arrest.

‘We can also confirm that Border Force has advised us that Individuals will be transported outside of Hampshire for processing in the normal way after they have been safely disembarked.’