Far behind the frontline: hybrid warfare and terrorist attacks in the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Russia's aggression in Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia has recently sparked many debates regarding geopolitical norms, security threats in Eastern Europe, and techniques of non-linear warfare that include disruption of electronic systems. Besides foreign state-sponsored terrorism in Ukraine carried out by the irregular non-state groups in the conflict zone, one should take into consideration other techniques of hybrid warfare such as attacks outside the frontline. In this paper the author analyzes 99 incidents that took place in Ukraine from February 2014 to May 2016 focusing on the following aspects: time, location, target, weapon, and the level of casualties. The author argues that the “low-intensity” terrorist attacks were aimed at spreading chaos, cracking down on the volunteer movement and destabilizing the political situation in southeast Ukraine