NATO has said it stands ready to defend “every inch” of allied territory and condemned the “recklessness” of Russia, after a Russian drone struck an apartment block in eastern Romania overnight.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte telephoned Romanian President Nicușor Dan to convey the alliance’s “absolute solidarity” and his thoughts for those injured in the strike, the former Dutch prime minister said in a post on social media.
Russia is already waging war on Poland, and Nato must respond more forcefully to its next attack, a senior Polish general has said.
Poland shot down Russian drones deep inside its airspace last autumn, while Moscow-linked hackers have attacked government infrastructure and ministries of thousands of times — including a cyber-assault that sought to cripple the power grid in midwinter.
Some ideas refuse to die. One of these is the notion of a European “reversal of alliances” into the arms of Russia. The phrase refers to the unexpected decoupling from former allies, accompanied by an unexpected alliance with former enemies. In 1756, Austria, which had always been an ally of Great Britain, instead allied with its longtime foe, France. Meanwhile, Great Britain and its old enemy, Prussia, became allies — resulting in the Seven Years’ War.
You hear it in Europe from the “new right” and the far left — at conferences where people swoon over “multipolarity” and in the corridors of Germany’s Bundestag, where desperate industrialists plead for Russia’s Gazprom to reopen its taps.
If this reversal of alliances was possible in 1756, why not in 2026?
I’m sure Carney has bought in.
Vladimir Putin has openly defied Sir Keir Starmer’s threat to seize sanctioned Russian vessels by sending a warship to escort them through the Channel.
The Admiral Grigorovich, a Black Sea fleet frigate, accompanied a pair of shadow fleet ships on Wednesday while a British naval vessel followed behind.
Positioned on the Royal Charlotte, a boat almost 10 miles from Dover, The Telegraph observed Putin’s flotilla cruising past the south coast while RFA Tideforce, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker, trailed in their wake.
Before invading all of Ukraine in 2022, President Putin demanded the withdrawal of Nato forces from member states that were once part of the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.
Such a move would have left countries such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland more vulnerable to a Russian attack. Nato itself would also have been weakened, perhaps fatally. Unsurprisingly, the military alliance rejected Putin’s ultimatum.
Four years on, President Trump has given Putin hope that his demands might, at least partially, be met. Furious that Nato members in Europe will not assist the US attack on Iran, Trump said on Wednesday that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance.
Nineteen people have been jailed over an attack at a concert hall near Moscow that killed 149 people and left more than 500 injured, the deadliest mass shooting in Russia in two decades.
A Russian military court handed life sentences to four gunmen and 11 accomplices. Four other defendants were given between 19 and 22 years, state media reported.
Gunmen opened fire at Crocus City Concert Hall on the outskirts of Russia’s capital on 22 March 2024 and set fire to the venue.
An Islamic State group affiliate admitted it had carried out the attack and posted video evidence. Moscow has repeatedly alleged Ukrainian involvement, which Kyiv has strenuously denied.
The beleaguered Iranian regime, with very few international allies, has been counting on Moscow’s support amid the ongoing US-Israeli strikes, but so far it has been left deeply disappointed.
Just hours after Israeli and US bombs started hitting Tehran on Saturday, Russia came out with a blunt statement, with the country’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, calling it an “unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent UN member state.”
Moscow is one of Tehran’s few but staunchest allies, and a possible collapse of the Iranian regime could be a blow for its geopolitical and economic interests. Then why has it not come to Tehran’s rescue?
Multipolarity is a disaster for Russia
As the Middle East lurches toward wider war, Vladimir Putin finds himself confronted by the terrifying reality of the world he has always demanded. For a quarter of a century, the Russian president has been demanding a “multipolar world order”, one that would overturn the hypocritical liberal consensus. Now, that order might have arrived, but the system taking shape is not creating a stronger Russia. Instead, it reveals an increasingly isolated and weakened state — one that, if the history of Putin’s rule is anything to go by, might see the Kremlin turn toward even further domestic repression and foreign confrontation.
It took only a minute to change the world.
Within the first 60 seconds of Operation Epic Fury, Israeli officials claimed, Iran’s supreme leader and his principal henchmen were dead.
But the precision-guided missiles that struck central Tehran in the opening salvo of the war did not merely kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and upend half a century of Iranian history. They also underscored a more basic reality – where true power still lies in the world.
Recent attention has focused on Greenland as a focal point of Arctic strategy, a reminder that geography once treated as peripheral now sits squarely within the logic of continental defense. A similar shift is unfolding elsewhere in the Arctic, though with far less public notice. The Northwest Passage—the network of sea routes threading Canada’s Arctic Archipelago between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—has moved from a seasonal curiosity to a corridor of growing strategic consequence. As activity increases, questions long treated as theoretical, including the legal status of those waters, are being pushed toward practical resolution.
For years, officials in Brussels and across Europe operated on a shared assumption: that Russia would not be in a position to directly challenge NATO before 2029. That date became a strategic comfort zone—time to rearm, coordinate, and reassure domestic publics. That certainty is now eroding rapidly.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a growing number of European political and military leaders now believe Moscow could test NATO—and the European Union—much sooner than previously expected. Such a move would not necessarily take the form of a full-scale invasion, but a limited, rapid, and carefully calibrated incursion designed to exploit Europe’s hesitation and internal divisions.
MARIJAMPOLE, Lithuania—European governments are preparing for war with Russia. A newly released wargame suggests they aren’t ready.
A Russian incursion, or outright invasion, into countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union has become more likely because of Europe’s tensions with President Trump over Greenland, Ukraine, trade and other matters, many European security and political leaders say.
They point out that Russia has switched to a war economy, focusing national resources on a rearmament program and military recruitment that goes well beyond the needs of the campaign in Ukraine.
The Arctic’s growing importance has reached the point that acquiring Greenland has become a key demand for the second Trump administration amid concerns about Russian and Chinese ambitions in the region, drawing protestations from other allies who urge continued Danish sovereignty over the autonomous territory.
When it comes to Canada’s defence of the Arctic, its capabilities for the roughly 4-million-square-kilometre expanse of Arctic territory falls far short when compared to both adversarial countries and its ally the United States. However, some analysts warn that Canada may be falling behind even middle-power Arctic nations, if the sheer size of its Arctic territory is taken into account.
Russia launches a full-scale war of aggression against Nato and the German armed forces are in the thick of the action from the first hours.
A 4,800-strong mechanised infantry strikes from a forward base in Lithuania before another 15,000 rapid-response troops are rushed to the front in a matter of days.
Over the weeks that follow tens of thousands of allied soldiers arrive at German North Sea ports to be shuttled east along road and rail routes plagued by Russian sabotage, cyberattacks and possibly long-range missile strikes.
There’s been a subtle but significant shift in what NORAD has been seeing over the last year when it comes to mostly Russian — but also Chinese — activity in the Arctic, says the top commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).
U.S. Gen. Gregory Guillot tells CBC News that air and sea incursions into the zones just outside North America have not only become more frequent, but also more co-ordinated.
“I’d say the most consequential difference in 2025 has been the volume, the simultaneous volume,” Guillot said in an exclusive interview.
