Washington Post: Russia can start striking Europe without fear of the United States

Russia may begin to strike at the territory of European countries in the very near future, while there are great doubts that the United States will defend its NATO allies.

Such a hypothetical scenario of military escalation was outlined by columnist David Ignatius in his article for The Washington Post. This is how he commented on Moscow's recent warnings regarding strikes on drone production sites in Europe.

The author notes that Trump's harsh rhetoric against European NATO allies is already undermining confidence in American security guarantees, which, according to Ignatius, Russia can take advantage of, having seen a "window of opportunity."

"If you are Putin, then you may be starting to think about the next war — against Europe — even though you continue to fight in Ukraine. You may even wonder if the time has come for a strike — before European countries completely rearm, before Ukraine develops new weapons capable of hitting targets even deeper into the Russia, and while your buddy, President Donald Trump, is in the White House and treats NATO like a punching bag," Ignatius writes.

The publication reminds that this week the Russian Ministry of Defense, followed by Deputy head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, threatened Europe with strikes on the production of drones that are supplied to Ukraine.

And the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, accused the Baltic states of opening their airspace to strikes by Ukrainian drones against the Russian Federation and threatened that Russia could "use the right to self-defense" under Article 51 of the UN Charter.