Russia warns of ‘direct confrontation’ with NATO over US Black Sea drones
Insights from The Washington Post and Firstpost
The News
Russia warned on Friday that an increase in US drones being flown over the Black Sea could prompt it into a “direct confrontation” with NATO.
The Kremlin accuses Washington of conducting reconnaissance on behalf of Ukraine in the waters, while the US has said it is flying the drones in accordance with international law.
SIGNALS
Russia is using sabotage missions to hit back at NATO
The US has warned its NATO allies that Russia is “intensifying a covert campaign of sabotage and hybrid warfare against supporters of Ukraine,” The Washington Post reported. Recent fires in storage facilities in the UK and Spain, which were holding supplies destined for Ukraine, are thought to have been arson attacks that are part of a larger Kremlin strategy: Russia has often called for covert attacks that minimize the threat to Moscow while sowing discord elsewhere, the Post’s David Ignatius noted. “The Ukraine conflict keeps moving inexorably up the escalation ladder: Russia attacks, Ukraine defends; NATO pumps military aid to Ukraine, Russia responds by sabotaging NATO supply lines. Each rung higher, the danger of a misstep gets worse.”
NATO-Russia tensions may be near ‘flashpoint’
Fears are mounting about the possibility of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. In Indian publication Firstpost, international studies professor Nalin Kumar Mohapatra argued that NATO may need to pull back some of its presence in Ukraine to counter the risk of angering Russia and entering into a wider war. “NATO’s major aim is to use Ukraine as a base for its further enlargement into the post-Soviet Eurasian space. This is the major flashpoint between NATO and Russia,” Mohapatra argued.
