Mood darkens in Europe over Ukraine war’s direction

(CN) — With Russian missiles and drones raining down on Ukrainian cities and NATO carrying out massive drills along the eastern front, Europe was on edge Wednesday after Polish fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a Russian rocket that appeared bound for Poland before it struck inside Ukrainian territory.

Three Polish F-16 warplanes were deployed Wednesday morning after a Russian missile was detected on a trajectory for Poland before falling inside Ukraine about 12 miles from the Polish border, according to news reports.

The missile was part of the latest massive Russian barrage against Ukrainian targets and cities. The attacks knocked out electricity in parts of Kyiv, killed at least five people and wounded more than 30, and exposed Ukraine's weakening air defenses.

The EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, was in the city discussing military and financial help for Ukraine and said he started his day in an air raid shelter.

For people in the European Union, the scrambling of Polish F-16s highlighted the high state of alarm in the bloc as the Ukraine war rages on nearly two years after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian troops have been killed and wounded in a war that has left Ukraine depopulated and in ruins.

This winter, the mood in Europe has sharply darkened because the war has taken a turn for the worse for Ukrainian troops and its Western allies. Numerous reports indicate that Russian forces, supported by far superior artillery power, may be on the verge of breaking through key Ukrainian defensive lines and there are fears Russia will launch a major offensive in the coming weeks or months.

Adding to the somber mood, fears are mounting in Europe about the risk of the United States pulling back its support of Kyiv due to resistance from Republican lawmakers and the possibility of Donald Trump's return to the White House.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden saw a deal to provide Ukraine with $60 billion in vital military aid collapse in the U.S. Senate. Republicans are showing little interest in helping pass the bill and give Biden a victory ahead of November elections.

Republican misgivings over Ukraine were poised to receive a powerful boost after Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and celebrity among American conservatives and the far right, announced on Tuesday he was in Moscow to interview Putin. He claimed he was there to shed light on the war, though critics said he was serving to spread Kremlin propaganda.

“Two years into a war that's reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed,” Carlson said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now. They've never heard his voice. That's wrong.”

He blasted Western mainstream media for pushing “government propaganda” about a war that's led to Western power “coming apart very fast and along with it the dominance of the U.S. dollar.”

Across Europe, anxiety over the threat Russia poses is accelerating.

In recent weeks, several defense ministers and high-ranking NATO officials have ominously talked about the need to prepare for a war with Russia in the coming years.

Since December, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has raised the specter of war with Russia in interviews and called on the EU to speed up rearmament.

“[Putin's] threats against the Baltic states, Georgia, and Moldova must be taken very seriously. This is not just saber-rattling. We could be facing dangers by the end of this decade,” he told Welt am Sonntag, a German newspaper, in December.

About two weeks ago, he told the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel that Russia could attack the NATO military alliance in less than a decade.

“We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day ... so we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a NATO country one day,” Pistorius said.

Recently, the United Kingdom's army chief, Gen. Patrick Sanders, called on his country to follow the example of European countries close to Russia and prepare for a general mobilization because of the threat of war.

In January, Latvia introduced a one-year draft for men between 18 and 27 and joined Baltic and Scandinavian neighbors that already had conscription. Croatia, too, has mulled reintroducing the draft.

On Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, lambasted Western leaders for talking about preparing for war with Russia and said his country has repeatedly declared it has no war plans against NATO or EU countries.

He claimed Western leaders were warning about war with Russia to distract voters from questioning why so much money was being spent on Ukraine and not on domestic needs.

Given that NATO's military budget is far greater than Russia's, he warned Russia would be forced to use its nuclear arsenal to defend itself in the event of a war with the Western military alliance.

“And this is the very notorious apocalypse. The end of everything,” he said on social media.

Adding to the tensions between the West and Russia, NATO is carrying out its largest drills in decades on the borders with Russia. About 90,000 troops will be involved in the war games, dubbed Steadfast Defender 24, which started at the start of February and will carry on until the end of May.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau

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