Abstract
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine highlights how modern conflict increasingly relies on antagonistic information threats alongside military force. This policy brief examines how such threats operate and what lessons they offer for European resilience. First, it outlines a framework through which hostile actors gradually weaken societies’ capacity to interpret events and trust institutions. Second, the brief analyzes Ukrainian cyber operations, highlighting that sustained defensive investment can reduce destructive impact even as attack activity intensifies. The brief further examines the economic implications, showing that antagonistic threats create continuous fiscal pressure as monitoring, detection, and incident response become permanent public expenditures rather than temporary crisis measures. Finally, the brief draws policy implications for Europe, stressing the need to treat cyber and information resilience as macro-critical infrastructure and to strengthen coordination across policy domains.