Russia summons Belgian ambassador over accusations of hybrid war and sabotage

Moscow summons the Belgian ambassador

Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned Belgium's ambassador to Moscow, Michel Gerebtzoff, on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, according to the state news agency TASS, which cited the ministry. The ministry told him Russia categorically rejects accusations from Belgian military and political leaders that Moscow is behind growing hybrid threats, sabotage and direct military threats against Belgium and Europe. The summons answers accusations that Moscow is responsible for recent suspected sabotage and hybrid incidents across Europe. The federal government in Brussels declined to comment, and a Belgian government source told Le Soir it did not want to react.

What the ministry demanded

The ministry described "openly aggressive" statements by certain Belgian officials, which it said portray Russia as an enemy, as contributing to further escalation. It also warned that the confrontation risked slipping out of control.

“There is a risk that the confrontation could spiral out of control as a result.”

Moscow urged Brussels to weigh the consequences of such remarks and to reduce the intensity of anti-Russian rhetoric, which it said was fuelling tensions on the European continent. The ministry's position is that Belgian leaders are deliberately casting Russia as an enemy. Its statement framed the summons as a rejection of claims it called unfounded and increasingly frequent.

Francken's warnings in late September

In late September 2026, Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken told a defence and security summit in Brussels that Europe should prepare for a dark winter as incidents orchestrated from Moscow increase. Francken said the hybrid war Russia is waging did not begin two years ago and that Moscow has practised it for 50 years, urging European partners to rearm and spend more on security. In a podcast interview on Het Rapport van de Wetstraat, he said Belgian security services and prosecutors were investigating dozens of suspicious incidents, with strong indications of Russian involvement in several. He cited proven cases of drones over sensitive sites and said Belgium had already been attacked, pointing to numerous cyberattacks against its installations. He named Belgian support for Ukraine as the main reason behind the hybrid attacks and said the army should prepare for new confrontations with Russia.

Frozen assets and the Brussels summit

The summons came a day after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha again called for using immobilised Russian assets held in the EU, mostly in Belgium. A European summit in Brussels, which Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend on Friday, is the next step in the debate. A senior European official said on Tuesday that positions on the assets had not changed since December, when Belgium persuaded other member states to use conventional borrowing to finance Ukraine. The same official said no decision on Ukraine's financing was expected at the summit.

A precedent from 2023

The summons has a precedent. In June 2023, the then Belgian ambassador, Marc Michielsen, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry over the alleged use of Belgian-made weapons by pro-Ukrainian armed groups during an incursion into Russia's Belgorod region. As of the latest report on 14 October, the federal government in Brussels had not commented on the new summons.