The Kremlin’s strong grip on the media and internet might enable it to present a peace agreement to most Russians as a victory. However, that is not the primary concern for the Russian president.
With Russia’s liberal opposition weakened, a small yet vocal group of nationalists now poses the greatest challenge to his leadership, according to Petrov. He has promised them a monumental victory, not only over Ukraine but also against what the Kremlin terms “the collective West.”
“There’s an aspiration among the hawkish segment of the military-political establishment to dismantle NATO,” said Alexander Baunov, a former Russian diplomat and current senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, to DW’s Russian service. “To demonstrate NATO’s ineffectiveness.”
Since Putin met with Trump in Alaska last month in what the U.S. president described as a summit aimed at achieving a ceasefire, Moscow has intensified its hybrid warfare campaign against Europe, according to military analysts.
Before Wednesday’s incursion, Russian drones had frequently entered Polish airspace from neighboring Belarus, circling cities before retreating. In August, a Russian drone crashed approximately 100 kilometers southwest of Warsaw.
According to WELT, a sister publication of POLITICO in the Axel Springer Group, five drones that breached Polish airspace were on a direct course toward a NATO base before being intercepted by Dutch Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.
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