What do the Russian trolls think? It appears that Putin's insanity is not going to result in a win for him, considering Europe (and previously, the U.S.) was intent on not letting this happen.
With Russian drones hitting Romania, now is not the time for Washington to up pressure on NATO allies.
An apartment building in Romania, near the border with Ukraine, burns on Friday after being hit by a suspected Russian drone.
As the fifth year of the Ukraine war grinds on, the besieged nation is slowly gaining the upper hand. This dynamic makes Russian President Vladimir Putin more unpredictable and dangerous — and makes the case for supporting Kyiv as persuasive as ever.
On Friday, what is suspected to be a Russian drone crossed into NATO airspace and crashed into an apartment building in Galati, Romania, setting it ablaze and wounding two people. It was apparently part of a salvo of 232 drones that Russia sent toward Ukraine in the wee hours of the night and the 28th time Russian drones have breached Romanian airspace since Moscow began hitting Ukrainian ports across the Danube.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, warned Europeans that this will be their new normal. “Let them get ready: this will continue to happen,” he said on Friday. “The citizens of E.U. states, as the population of the belligerent countries, will not be able to sleep peacefully.”
This kind of boasting is a sign of weakness. Britain’s intelligence services estimated this week that nearly half a million Russian soldiers had been killed in fighting since 2022, with one official declaring that Putin is “going backwards on the battlefield.”
Russian forces suffered a net loss of territory in April for the first time since 2024, according to the Institute for the Study of War. And Ukrainian drones and missiles have been reaching ever deeper into Russia, striking targets in Moscow this month.
Putin, it turns out, doesn’t have all the cards. And his behavior is becoming more obviously desperate. On Monday, the aging dictator signed a law authorizing his military to deploy abroad to “protect” Russian citizens facing prosecution by foreign courts.
The Kremlin dressed the move up as a stand against Western “Russophobia,” but the real purpose is narrower. The seizure of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of sanctions-dodging tankers by foreign coast guards could now theoretically trigger Russian military intervention.
WaPo
With Russian drones hitting Romania, now is not the time for Washington to up pressure on NATO allies.
An apartment building in Romania, near the border with Ukraine, burns on Friday after being hit by a suspected Russian drone.
As the fifth year of the Ukraine war grinds on, the besieged nation is slowly gaining the upper hand. This dynamic makes Russian President Vladimir Putin more unpredictable and dangerous — and makes the case for supporting Kyiv as persuasive as ever.
On Friday, what is suspected to be a Russian drone crossed into NATO airspace and crashed into an apartment building in Galati, Romania, setting it ablaze and wounding two people. It was apparently part of a salvo of 232 drones that Russia sent toward Ukraine in the wee hours of the night and the 28th time Russian drones have breached Romanian airspace since Moscow began hitting Ukrainian ports across the Danube.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, warned Europeans that this will be their new normal. “Let them get ready: this will continue to happen,” he said on Friday. “The citizens of E.U. states, as the population of the belligerent countries, will not be able to sleep peacefully.”
This kind of boasting is a sign of weakness. Britain’s intelligence services estimated this week that nearly half a million Russian soldiers had been killed in fighting since 2022, with one official declaring that Putin is “going backwards on the battlefield.”
Russian forces suffered a net loss of territory in April for the first time since 2024, according to the Institute for the Study of War. And Ukrainian drones and missiles have been reaching ever deeper into Russia, striking targets in Moscow this month.
Putin, it turns out, doesn’t have all the cards. And his behavior is becoming more obviously desperate. On Monday, the aging dictator signed a law authorizing his military to deploy abroad to “protect” Russian citizens facing prosecution by foreign courts.
The Kremlin dressed the move up as a stand against Western “Russophobia,” but the real purpose is narrower. The seizure of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of sanctions-dodging tankers by foreign coast guards could now theoretically trigger Russian military intervention.
WaPo
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