Russian President Vladimir Putin also announces a successful final test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile.

• October 27, 2025

By Yunis GURBANOV, PhD, Senior Advisor at the AIR Center, Baku

In September, countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) reported several incidents involving airspace violations. On September 10, 19 drones crossed into Polish territory, prompting Warsaw to call for Article 4 consultations. In a separate episode on September 19, three Russian MiG-31 jets briefly entered Estonian airspace before being intercepted by NATO air policing units. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte described these developments as concerning and emphasized that the Alliance remains attentive to safeguarding its members’ security. These incidents reflect an increasingly complex security environment along NATO’s eastern flank. The combination of drone activity and jet overflights highlights the challenges of managing airspace security in an era of hybrid threats. At the same time, the use of unmarked drones, short-duration incursions, and deactivated transponders complicates attribution and leaves room for differing interpretations of intent. READ MORE

• October 17, 2025

By Fuad SHAHBAZOV, Baku-based independent regional security and defence analyst

Air incursions, military drills, and escalating hybrid warfare hint at a new and alarming level of Russian aggression. Is it just for show?
Russia and Belarus held joint military drills in September. But the biennial exercises were overshadowed by something that may be more ominous — an outbreak of drone and aerial incursions across Poland and the Nordic-Baltic states that illustrate NATO members’ vulnerability to disabling attacks on fragile systems like civil airports. Zapad-2025 is an established Kremlin method of baring its military teeth to its near-neighbours. The official reason for September’s large-scale exercises is to test the ability of the two countries to repel an enemy attack, retake lost territory and secure the borders of what they refer to as their “Union State”. They have often triggered alarm across the NATO alliance, particularly in the Baltic states and Poland, which have a deep historical and recent sensitivity to Kremlin aggression. READ MORE

• October 7, 2025

Some European countries have raised concerns about potential legal challenges to the ‘reparations plan’ for Ukraine.

• October 3, 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged a “significant” response to “Europe’s militarisation” and says the hysteria around his country potentially attacking NATO is “nonsense”.

• October 3, 2025

Moscow has called France’s detention of the ship, and arrest of the captain, an act of piracy.

• October 3, 2025

In 2021, Russia supplied the EU with 45 percent of its gas and 27 percent of its oil. By 2024, these values dropped to 19 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

• October 3, 2025

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters the decision would create a ‘credible deterrence’ against Russia.

• September 19, 2025