France’s Chief of the Defence Staff, General Thierry Burkhard, warned on 11 July that Moscow now regards France as its principal enemy in Europe and is waging a broad hybrid campaign against Paris and its allies. Speaking at a rare press conference in Paris two days before the 14 July national celebrations, the general said President Vladimir Putin has ‘openly designated’ France as Russia’s first adversary on the continent, citing Paris’s military and political backing for Kyiv. Burkhard described Russia as a lasting, nearby and ‘most dimension-shaping’ threat, combining conventional and nuclear capabilities with cyber operations, disinformation, espionage and acts of sabotage. He pointed to Russian submarines operating in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, hostile satellite manoeuvres in space and information warfare in Africa, all intended to weaken European cohesion and, ultimately, to dismantle NATO. Although a direct large-scale strike on French territory is unlikely because of France’s nuclear deterrent, the general said the country must brace for intensified hybrid attacks. He urged European partners to increase defence spending and readiness, noting France’s own plan to raise its military budget from €47.2 billion in 2024 to about €67.4 billion by 2030, as part of a strategy to ‘win the war before the war’. The general also listed other security challenges, including persistent jihadist terrorism at home, the spread of armed groups and climate-linked instability in Africa, state-sponsored terrorism by Iran, and Chinese cyber-enabled influence operations. He argued that the outcome of Russia’s war in Ukraine will shape Europe’s future security, warning that an eventual Ukrainian defeat would leave European nations ‘herbivores among carnivores’. President Emmanuel Macron is expected to detail additional defence measures in a speech to the armed forces on 13 July.