Putin warns US not to station missiles in Germany; Kyiv drones ‘strike fighter jet in Russia’s Arctic’

Ukrainian drones hit a fighter jet parked at an airfield deep inside Russian territory, according to a person familiar with the overnight operation.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered a vision of a new world order, with backing from China and Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House amplifying his role as a renegade within the European Union. He even teased options outside the bloc.

Putin warns of new Cold War triggered by US missiles in Germany

President Vladimir Putin said Russia could deploy medium and shorter-range strike weapons and increase its naval capabilities if the US goes ahead with plans to station longer-range missiles in Germany.

“If the United States implements such plans, we will consider ourselves free from the previously assumed unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium- and shorter-range strike weapons, including increasing the capabilities of the coastal troops of our navy,” Putin said in St Petersburg at an event for Russia’s Navy Day holiday.

Washington said this month that it would begin periodically stationing conventional long-range weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, and “developmental hypersonic weapons” in Germany from 2026 as a deterrent. Putin said that those weapons would be able to reach important Russian state and defence infrastructure in about 10 minutes.

The US pulled out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia in 2019 after it accused Moscow of not complying with the agreement. Putin said at the time that Washington’s withdrawal “created fundamental risks for everyone”.

The Kremlin has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Those threats have been condemned by the US and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

Germany’s defence minister has characterised the US plans as having been forged by Russia’s placement of Iskander ballistic missiles in Kaliningrad, its exclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania.

“What the United States will do in Germany from 2026 is nothing else but a response to Russia’s threat,” Boris Pistorius told the Luxembourg-based Tageblatt newspaper this month.

Putin said the situation, along with the transfer of Typhon intermediate-range missile systems from the US to Denmark and the Philippines, was reminiscent of the Cold War. China has also issued a warning to Manila on the topic, warning of a regional “arms race”.

Ukraine says its drones hit strategic jet in Russia’s Arctic

Ukrainian drones hit a fighter jet parked at an airfield deep inside Russian territory, according to a person familiar with the overnight operation.

The unmanned aerial vehicles launched by Kyiv’s military intelligence reached the target, a Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range missile carrier, at the base on the Kola Peninsula in Russia’s north, according to the person, who requested not to be named because they’re not authorised to speak publicly.

Both the person and reports on the strike in Ukrainian media didn’t elaborate on the scale of damage caused. Russia hasn’t commented on the incident.

Read more: The toy drones helping keep Ukraine’s war effort alive

The Olenya air base reached by Ukraine’s drones is located about 92km south of Russia’s northwestern city of Murmansk, the world’s largest settlement north of the Arctic Circle.

The base has been used for launches by Russia, including jets used to bombard targets in Ukraine some 2,000km to the south.

Read more: Ukraine says it hit large ammunition cache in southwest Russia

Separately, Russia’s defence ministry reported the crash of a military aircraft in the Volgograd region east of Ukraine.

The Su-34 fighter jet went down during a planned training flight, the ministry said, blaming a technical malfunction and saying the crew ejected successfully with no casualties.

Orbán bets on Trump return to supercharge EU disruptor role

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered a vision of a new world order, with backing from China and Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House amplifying his role as a renegade within the European Union. He even teased options outside the bloc.

Addressing supporters at an annual retreat in Baile Tusnad in central Romania on Saturday, Orbán touched on familiar tropes about a weak EU core favouring LGBTQ rights and immigration. He compared it with Putin’s “rational,” strongly led Russia, an ascendant Asia, and nation-states on the EU’s eastern flank pursuing independent policies.

Orbán (61) has revelled in his role as a disruptor in Europe, at one point holding up the bloc’s budget, blocking aid for Ukraine and regularly suggesting life outside the EU might be better. Brussels is still withholding money from Hungary, accusing its government of corruption and cronyism.

“I don’t think we’ll get a political and economic offer from the US that will give us better opportunities than EU membership,” said Orbán. “If we were to get such an offer, we’d have to consider it.”

Orbán described Trump as a role model for aiming to bring the US back from a liberal order toward a nation-state.

“That’s why there is so much at stake in the American elections,” said Orbán. “That’s why they want to imprison him, that’s why they take away his property and tried to kill him, perhaps not for the last time in this campaign.”

At the same time, it was in China’s interest to keep Hungary within the EU, added Orbán. The prime minister referenced President Xi Jinping’s visit to Budapest in May, which helped strengthen Hungary’s role as an access point to the European market for Chinese electric vehicle and battery makers. Hungary also recently took a €1-billion loan from China to finance infrastructure development.

All in all, Orbán came down in favour of keeping Hungary as a centre for nationalist policies within the EU for now. “We are able to defend our status as a nation-state” in the EU, he said.

David Pressman, the US ambassador to Budapest, who’s been critical of Orbán for taking sides in the US election campaign, berated him for channelling Russian talking points in Saturday’s speech.

“Fresh from his meeting with Putin, Prime Minister Orban also peddled Kremlin conspiracy theories about the United States,” Pressman said in a post on X. “Hardly what we expect from an Ally.”

Orbán has a history of using the Transylvanian summer event to announce controversial nationalist policies in what was part of Hungary until World War 1, often fuelling tension with neighbours.

This year’s speech came at an especially fraught time, with Hungary’s stint in the EU’s rotating presidency off to a rocky start in its first month. Orbán started his half-year term at the bloc’s helm with a whirlwind tour, stopping in Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing and at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in early July, upsetting EU and Nato allies who said he wasn’t authorised to negotiate on their behalf.

Orbán’s push for a truce in Ukraine has also further antagonised the government in Kyiv, with implications for Hungary’s struggling economy amid a dispute on crucial Russian oil shipments via Ukraine. DM