{"id":9954,"date":"2026-08-07T14:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/9954\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:25:12","slug":"us-intel-putin-could-test-nato-with-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/9954\/","title":{"rendered":"US Intel: Putin Could Test NATO With Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Russia's<\/p>\n

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (Alexander KAZAKOV\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

U.S. intelligence reports say Russia could conduct a limited assault on a NATO ally in the next few years, The Wall Street Journal reported.<\/p>\n

The new assessments warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin could attempt anything from a cyberattack or deployment of unmarked armed groups to a small-scale incursion along NATO’s eastern flank, according to U.S. officials.<\/p>\n

The potential window for Russian action stretches from this fall through 2029, the Journal<\/a> reported Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Intelligence officials consider a land incursion the least likely scenario, but believe the risk could increase over time.<\/p>\n

The assessment represents a shift from the previous U.S. view that Putin would avoid directly provoking NATO while Russia remains at war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Officials now worry that a cornered Putin, facing mounting Ukrainian attacks and pressure to demonstrate military success, could become more dangerous.<\/p>\n

The concern follows what officials see as Moscow increasingly testing NATO’s defenses.<\/p>\n

Russian missiles and drones have crossed into NATO territory, including in recent incidents involving Poland and Romania.<\/p>\n

NATO has bolstered its eastern flank in response to repeated Russian airspace violations.<\/p>\n

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said the recent incidents were deliberate Russian attempts to pressure NATO into reducing support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“This was no accident,” Wicker said in a statement <\/a>Thursday after a Russian cruise missile struck Polish territory and armed Russian drones entered Romanian airspace.<\/p>\n

“These tactics were a deliberate escalation aimed at coercing NATO to end its support of Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

Wicker argued that “Putin only understands strength and cost imposition,” and called for maintaining credible NATO conventional defenses while European allies increase military spending.<\/p>\n

The warnings come as Ukraine increasingly strikes targets deep inside Russia.<\/p>\n

Kyiv said Thursday it struck oil refineries hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border as part of its campaign to weaken Moscow’s wartime economy.<\/p>\n

Russia said its defenses shot down 605 Ukrainian drones overnight.<\/p>\n

The intelligence assessment also comes amid concerns about U.S. weapons inventories following years of military assistance to Ukraine and expenditures during the conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n

The Journal reported that stocks of some critical missiles and air-defense interceptors have fallen, although the Trump administration strongly disputes suggestions that the U.S. is unprepared.<\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the military maintains a “deep, ready arsenal,” warning that adversaries who mistake reports of shortages for American weakness “will discover the truth the hard way.”<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (Alexander KAZAKOV\/Getty Images) U.S. intelligence reports say Russia could conduct a limited assault on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[233,5116,7,5629,20,5630,3869,185,71,437],"class_list":["post-9954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-eastern-flank","tag-intelligence-officials","tag-nato","tag-roger-wicker","tag-russia","tag-russian-airspace","tag-russian-missiles","tag-the-wall-street-journal","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}