France and Italy have denied receiving a reported CIA warning that Russia could launch Gerbera drones from shipping containers aboard merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, undercutting the most consequential element of an account first published by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. The report said US intelligence had shared information on possible Kremlin escalation plans with several European governments, including a scenario in which drones would be launched from the sea against Spain, France or Italy. But the alleged assessment has not been made public, and no government has confirmed that a specific vessel, target or operation has been identified.
On September 24, President Emmanuel Macron said the CIA had not informed French services. “I can deny it. The CIA did not inform French services,” he said in a television interview.
Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, also rejected the report’s premise. The alarm raised by a Spanish newspaper about potential attacks on Italy, Spain and France by Russian ships and drones, he said, “finds no confirmation.” Italian sources cited separately said that no such alert had reached the country’s security and intelligence bodies at that point. The competing accounts leave a clear uncertainty at the centre of the story: intelligence warnings may circulate in forms and channels that governments do not publicly acknowledge, but the available evidence does not establish that the CIA issued the specific warning described, or that Russia has prepared a maritime drone attack.
A low-cost disruption scenario
The reported scenario nevertheless points to a maritime-security problem that European governments have been confronting more broadly: the prospect of low-cost drones being used to create disruption from an unexpected direction. According to El Mundo, the aircraft in question would be a Gerbera drone, described as roughly two metres long with a wingspan of 2.5 metres and a weight of up to 18 kilograms. The report put its speed at about 160 kilometres an hour and its declared maximum range at 600 kilometres, subject to explosive payload and conditions such as wind.
An anonymous source described as close to Lithuania’s defence ministry told the newspaper that the drones would be launched from the sea and concealed in a ship’s container. That operational detail did not come from a published CIA document. At a distance of 200 to 300 kilometres from shore, the report said, such a flight could take between about one hour and 15 minutes and two hours.
It assessed that a payload of four to five kilograms would be unlikely to destroy a large installation, but could start a fire, damage exposed equipment or temporarily interrupt operations at a port or airport. That distinction matters. The alleged threat is not comparable to a conventional missile strike against a major military or industrial site.
Its significance would lie in the difficulty of detecting a modest, mobile launch platform within dense commercial traffic, and in the potential political and economic effect of a temporary disruption at a strategic Mediterranean facility. The report did not identify a commercial shipping line, crew or vessel. Nor did it provide evidence that a container launcher had been deployed on a merchant ship.
Public denials and a wider hybrid concern
El Mundo said defence analysts knew of a CIA report circulating among European foreign ministries and linked the information to CIA director John Ratcliffe’s August 25 trip to Moscow. It also noted that Macron had convened France’s Defence Council on September 16 and met political leaders two days later. Those French meetings occurred before the newspaper published its report on September 23.
The available account does not show that they were called in response to the alleged warning. Other responses have reinforced the difference between a broad concern about Russian hybrid activity and confirmation of a specific Mediterranean plot. A European Commission spokesperson said Brussels was aware of the published information but was not aware of a concrete alert about the alleged attacks.
The spokesperson nevertheless cited growing pressure on European countries through hybrid operations and airspace violations. NATO, asked about the reported risk, said Russia represented a long-term threat to alliance territory, while cautioning against panic. The alliance did not confirm the alleged ship-launched Gerbera plan.
The episode exposes a practical tension for southern European governments. Merchant shipping is protected by rules intended to preserve freedom of navigation, while inspecting or boarding vessels in international waters requires legal authority and reliable grounds for action. An unverified warning therefore cannot easily translate into indiscriminate interdiction of commercial traffic.
For now, the documentable development is narrower than the initial alarm: a report of a possible Russian maritime drone scenario has produced emphatic denials from France and Italy, no public confirmation from Brussels or NATO, and no evidence on the record of an imminent attack.