Russia Touches Three NATO States In A Day — And The Alliance Barely Blinks
Sabotage in Poland. Drones over Romania. A Turkish ship struck. Moscow is mapping Western weakness — in real time.
🔥 WORLD BRIEFING HOT TAKE: Three NATO States Hit In 24 Hours — Moscow Is Stress-Testing the Alliance
Russia didn’t “accidentally” brush up against NATO this week — it engineered a 24-hour stress test of the alliance. In roughly a 24-hour period, Moscow’s actions touched three NATO states:
• Poland: a sabotaged railway used to move Western weapons to Ukraine. Moscow is a prime suspect
• Romania: Russian drones hitting a Turkish-flagged LNG tanker at Ukraine’s Izmail port, forcing evacuations across the Danube.
• Turkey: its vessel damaged in the Russian strike mentioned above - a direct hit on a NATO member’s commercial asset.
This is no longer isolated spillover. It’s a pattern.
Let’s be blunt: Moscow is probing the alliance, looking for the soft tissue - and it’s finding it. That’s what autocrats do. They test, escalate, and observe. And Putin now has 24 hours of valuable data about NATO hesitancy, European disunity, and Western paralysis.
Warsaw calls the rail blast an “unprecedented act of sabotage.” Bucharest scrambled civilians again after drones crossed the river. Ankara is silent so far — but likely watching closely.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is watching something else entirely: a NATO that talks tough, but shies away from escalation. An EU distracted by its own divisions. A West hoping not to be dragged into confrontation.
This is hybrid warfare in pure form. Not large enough to trigger Article 5. Just large enough to show that Russia can intrude, disrupt, and intimidate inside NATO’s neighborhood with near-impunity.
The message from Moscow is brutally simple: “We can touch your territory, your civilians, and your commercial assets — and you still won’t act.”
For every capital in Europe, the takeaway should be equally clear: the frontline is not “moving toward” NATO — it has already reached it.
This is the moment for deterrence, not handwringing. Because the next strike may not be calibrated to stay below the threshold.
Russia is knocking at NATO’s door — and now it’s knocking on three at once.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said an explosion on a major railway line that is used to transport military goods and aid to Ukraine was caused by an “unprecedented act of sabotage.” Tusk said in a post on social media on November 17 that the blast occurred a day earlier on a line running from Warsaw to the eastern Polish city of Lublin, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the border with Ukraine. “The blowing up of the railway track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage aimed at the security of the Polish state and its citizens,” Tusk said in the post, adding that an investigation is under way. He gave no further details of the blast or of who may have been behind it but said a second site with damage was discovered on the same line further east. Polish officials, as well as those from other European nations, have long accused Moscow is accused of waging a “hybrid” campaign of sabotage and spying against those countries that have aided Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Last month, Polish authorities arrested eight people suspected of spying or planning attacks on behalf of Russia. Separately, Romanian authorities have ordered the evacuation of residents in the village of Plauru on the Danube River that forms the border with Ukraine after a drone reportedly struck an LPG-carrying ship on the Ukrainian side of the river. In a statement released today (November 17), the Defense Ministry said its radar monitoring and surveillance systems also detected and tracked targets in Ukrainian airspace near Tulcea County where Plauru lies. In January, Tusk accused Russia of plotting terror attacks against unspecified targets utilizing aircraft. His comments came amid a growing number of suspicious, alarming, and unexplained incidents. Some have involved international airlines and allegations Russia was seeking to plant secret explosives on cargo flights, while others involved ships that have disrupted undersea cables.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Kyiv has reached an agreement with Greece to import gas as the country races to secure winter energy supplies amid ongoing Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. He said Ukraine already has financing arrangements in place for gas imports and is seeking nearly €2 billion ($2.3 billion) to offset losses in domestic production caused by Russian strikes. Zelenskyy acknowledged support from European partners and said Kyiv is also working closely with the US on securing full funding. The president highlighted efforts to diversify gas routes, including cooperation with Poland and discussions with Azerbaijan for long-term supply contracts. His remarks came hours after authorities reported overnight Russian airstrikes on multiple Ukrainian regions. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 139 of 176 drones launched by Russia, while attacks in Odesa damaged energy facilities, including a solar power plant. Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed to have intercepted 57 Ukrainian drones targeting several regions, including Samara and Volgograd. Zelenskyy also said Ukraine has prepared a “historic” defense agreement with France to strengthen combat aviation and air defenses. He is scheduled to sign the deal during a visit on Monday and will travel to Spain the following day - Agencies
Russia continued its deadly air strikes on Ukrainian cities, killing at least three people in the Kharkiv region overnight, local officials said. On November 17, Ukraine’s Emergency Service reported three people had been killed and at least 13 injured, including four children, in a Russian strike on the eastern city of Balakliya, an important railroad junction in the Kharkiv region.
Vitaliy Karabanov, head of Balakliya’s military administration, said the attack struck the city center and injured at least three children. Nine people were hospitalized, while emergency crews were at the site, he added. Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities as the winter months approach, leading to fears of power shortages amid the likely freezing weather. Moscow has also regularly struck Ukrainian civilian areas, although it denies it targets such sites - RFE/RL
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal has sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death for crimes against humanity over her government’s violent crackdown on student-led protests last year. The 78-year-old fugitive politician was on trial in absentia for being the “mastermind and principal architect” behind last year’s suppression of mass demonstrations, in which some 1,400 people were killed. The tribunal also sentenced former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death for his involvement in the use of deadly force against protesters. Both Hasina and Khan fled to India last year. A third suspect, former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, was sentenced to five years in prison after becoming a state witness against Hasina and pleading guilty. Bangladesh has demanded India should “immediately hand over” Hasina and Khan. In a statement, India’s foreign ministry said it remains “committed to best interests of Bangladesh”, but refused to comment on the extradition. In addition to sentencing Hasina and former Home Minister Khan to death, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal has also ordered the confiscation of their properties - Al Jazeera
“This is a historic day. The person responsible for the deaths of hundreds and the maiming of thousands has been sentenced to death. It is a victory for the July Uprising” - Bangladesh’s acting head of the Law Ministry, Professor Asif Nazrul
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South Africa has raised serious concerns after two unexpected flights carrying Palestinians landed in Johannesburg under unusual circumstances. What initially looked like a humanitarian arrival has now become the centre of a diplomatic storm, with government officials questioning whether Palestinians are being quietly pushed out of Gaza and the West Bank. Foreign Affairs Minister Ronald Lamola did not mince his words. Speaking in Johannesburg on Monday, he said the nature of the latest flight suggested “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank”. In South Africa’s political vocabulary, that is a heavy statement, and it sent ripples through diplomatic and human rights circles. The most recent group of 153 Palestinians arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on 13 November. They were flown in on a chartered aircraft and, crucially, had no Israeli departure stamps in their passports. That raised immediate red flags for border officials, who kept the group on the plane for 12 hours while government sought clarity. President Cyril Ramaphosa eventually authorised a standard 90-day visa exemption. But the questions did not end there. It later emerged that this was not the first such flight. Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers confirmed that another aircraft carrying 176 Palestinians had landed quietly on 28 October, also under unclear circumstances. Both flights appear to have been arranged with the involvement of an obscure organisation called Al-Majd. Lamola told reporters that the pattern looked orchestrated, suggesting a coordinated effort to remove Palestinians from their homeland. He warned that South Africa does not want additional unannounced flights entering the country, saying the situation “does look like it represents a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world” - EWN
Sudan’s ambassador to the EU warned that European-made weapons are winding up on battlefields in the African country and fueling atrocities in its two-year civil war. Abdelbagi Kabeir called on EU countries to stop selling arms to the United Arab Emirates, which a United Nations panel probed earlier this year over allegations it is backing a notorious rebel militia in the Sudanese conflict. Sudan has been ravaged by a war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of the government in Khartoum and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused by rights group and United Nations experts of ethnic massacres, mass displacement and systematic sexual violence. The U.N. describes the humanitarian crisis as among the world’s largest, with tens of thousands killed since 2023 and some 25 million facing extreme hunger. “The EU should weigh the moral balance over the trade balance,” said Kabeir, who represents Sudan’s internationally recognized government in Khartoum as he criticized the bloc’s ties with the UAE - Politico
The journals…..
This is scary. Time for the West to wake up.