Putin Shows No Sign of Stopping Ukraine War — SkimNews
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- United Russia won last month's legislative vote with more MPs than ever, handing Putin what the Kremlin frames as a mandate to continue the war he calls the "special military operation."
- Russia targets Ukraine daily with ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones, encouraged by Ukraine's shortage of air defence missiles and plans to ratchet up winter strikes.
- Russia is waging an escalating hybrid war on European states through cyber-attacks, sabotage, and drone incursions — including an explosive drone found near Ukrainian cargo planes at Leipzig airport in Germany.
- Sergei Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia's Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, told the BBC that if Europe does not surrender, "we will have to go nuclear" — dismissing the prospect of any Western nuclear retaliation.
- Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov framed the conflict as a European war on Russia, admitted Russia is using "brute force" in Ukraine, and painted Kyiv as a "Nazi regime backed by the West" — the same false pretext Russia has used since 2022.
- Lavrov also pointed to US operations in Venezuela and against Iran's leadership as Western "brute force," deflecting from Russia's own conduct in Ukraine during his UN General Assembly address.
Why it matters: Putin's post-election consolidation, combined with Karaganov's explicit nuclear threats against European states if they keep backing Kyiv and confirmed hybrid attacks on EU territory, signals that Western military support for Ukraine now faces a coordinated multi-front pressure campaign — battlefield escalation in winter plus sabotage and airspace violations designed to erode European political will.
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