Poland, with an imminent high-priced military ramp-up, is betting that the cost of peace is cheaper than the price of war with Russia.
In a watershed defence spend, coming from a European Union loan, Warsaw is pouring nearly 44 billion euros ($71 billion) into stepping up its military infrastructure. Why now? That’s obvious for anyone following Moscow’s unyielding provocations.
An explosion at a restaurant in central Moscow killed at least three people, including the suspected bomber on Saturday night, authorities said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described it as a “brutal terrorist attack.”
“Law enforcement agencies are investigating the circumstances of the incident. Those responsible for this crime will certainly be found and face the punishment they deserve,” he said in an online post on Sunday.
MOSCOW BOMBING
🇷🇺 Bomb Carried By Woman Kills Three And Injures 21 Near Moscow Restaurant, Authorities Say
Aug 2,2026
Three people were killed and 15 injured on Saturday evening when an explosion tore through an upscale Moscow restaurant where local reports said a top… pic.twitter.com/bI8nb6PT9D
— Sid (@Trending_Sid) August 2, 2026
One week ago, three widely respected European news outlets published the results of an investigation into what they described as a “joint plan” by China and Russia to “defeat Elon Musk’s Starlink.”
The story was the product of a long-running inquiry by The Insider, Der Spiegel, and Le Monde. Reporters at those publications said they reviewed a cache of documents detailing growing military cooperation between China and Russia. The documents covered discussions between the nuclear powers on integrated air and missile defense systems, autonomous “swarm” loitering munitions, next-generation armored vehicles, and military aviation, the report said.
A string of drone incidents in Europe between August 2024 and February 2026 is being treated as a sign of Russian ‘success,’ as part of a coordinated campaign.
This assessment comes from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which in a new report described the idea of a Moscow-led initiative to test European air defences with UAVs as “highly likely.”
Russia is planning an armed “provocation” on Polish soil to test Nato’s resolve, the United States has warned.
Polish critical infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones or Russian soldiers could cross the border into Nato territory.
Washington has issued several warnings to Warsaw about the plot, sources close to Karol Nawrocki, the Polish president, told Onet, the Polish news outlet, which, along with The Telegraph, is owned by Axel Springer and is part of its Global Reporters Network.
OTTAWA — An explosive wrongful-dismissal lawsuit that claims a senior defence official was fired after warning that Ottawa’s anti-American rhetoric was handing a gift to Canada’s real adversaries, China and Russia, casts an article by a veteran Ottawa newspaper reporter as a turning point in the government’s posture toward her — a characterization the reporter firmly rejects.
The Ministry of Defence is investigating reports that a Russian frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, fired warning shots on Tuesday morning within 500 metres of a British yacht sailing a little over 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight.
No injuries or damage have been reported by the yacht, a pleasure boat, which continued its journey. A boat from HMS Tyne, a patrol vessel, has visited the yacht to gather details and check the crew are safe.
The incident came just days after the UK seized a Russia-linked oil tanker, the Smyrtos, off the coast of the Isle of Wight, the first time British forces have led the seizure of a sanctioned vessel since the start of the war against Ukraine.
NATO has said it stands ready to defend “every inch” of allied territory and condemned the “recklessness” of Russia, after a Russian drone struck an apartment block in eastern Romania overnight.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte telephoned Romanian President Nicușor Dan to convey the alliance’s “absolute solidarity” and his thoughts for those injured in the strike, the former Dutch prime minister said in a post on social media.
Russia is already waging war on Poland, and Nato must respond more forcefully to its next attack, a senior Polish general has said.
Poland shot down Russian drones deep inside its airspace last autumn, while Moscow-linked hackers have attacked government infrastructure and ministries of thousands of times — including a cyber-assault that sought to cripple the power grid in midwinter.
Some ideas refuse to die. One of these is the notion of a European “reversal of alliances” into the arms of Russia. The phrase refers to the unexpected decoupling from former allies, accompanied by an unexpected alliance with former enemies. In 1756, Austria, which had always been an ally of Great Britain, instead allied with its longtime foe, France. Meanwhile, Great Britain and its old enemy, Prussia, became allies — resulting in the Seven Years’ War.
You hear it in Europe from the “new right” and the far left — at conferences where people swoon over “multipolarity” and in the corridors of Germany’s Bundestag, where desperate industrialists plead for Russia’s Gazprom to reopen its taps.
If this reversal of alliances was possible in 1756, why not in 2026?
I’m sure Carney has bought in.
Vladimir Putin has openly defied Sir Keir Starmer’s threat to seize sanctioned Russian vessels by sending a warship to escort them through the Channel.
The Admiral Grigorovich, a Black Sea fleet frigate, accompanied a pair of shadow fleet ships on Wednesday while a British naval vessel followed behind.
Positioned on the Royal Charlotte, a boat almost 10 miles from Dover, The Telegraph observed Putin’s flotilla cruising past the south coast while RFA Tideforce, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker, trailed in their wake.
Before invading all of Ukraine in 2022, President Putin demanded the withdrawal of Nato forces from member states that were once part of the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.
Such a move would have left countries such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland more vulnerable to a Russian attack. Nato itself would also have been weakened, perhaps fatally. Unsurprisingly, the military alliance rejected Putin’s ultimatum.
Four years on, President Trump has given Putin hope that his demands might, at least partially, be met. Furious that Nato members in Europe will not assist the US attack on Iran, Trump said on Wednesday that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance.
Nineteen people have been jailed over an attack at a concert hall near Moscow that killed 149 people and left more than 500 injured, the deadliest mass shooting in Russia in two decades.
A Russian military court handed life sentences to four gunmen and 11 accomplices. Four other defendants were given between 19 and 22 years, state media reported.
Gunmen opened fire at Crocus City Concert Hall on the outskirts of Russia’s capital on 22 March 2024 and set fire to the venue.
An Islamic State group affiliate admitted it had carried out the attack and posted video evidence. Moscow has repeatedly alleged Ukrainian involvement, which Kyiv has strenuously denied.
The beleaguered Iranian regime, with very few international allies, has been counting on Moscow’s support amid the ongoing US-Israeli strikes, but so far it has been left deeply disappointed.
Just hours after Israeli and US bombs started hitting Tehran on Saturday, Russia came out with a blunt statement, with the country’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, calling it an “unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent UN member state.”
Moscow is one of Tehran’s few but staunchest allies, and a possible collapse of the Iranian regime could be a blow for its geopolitical and economic interests. Then why has it not come to Tehran’s rescue?
Multipolarity is a disaster for Russia
As the Middle East lurches toward wider war, Vladimir Putin finds himself confronted by the terrifying reality of the world he has always demanded. For a quarter of a century, the Russian president has been demanding a “multipolar world order”, one that would overturn the hypocritical liberal consensus. Now, that order might have arrived, but the system taking shape is not creating a stronger Russia. Instead, it reveals an increasingly isolated and weakened state — one that, if the history of Putin’s rule is anything to go by, might see the Kremlin turn toward even further domestic repression and foreign confrontation.
