WW3 risk as Putin ‘launches more drones at NATO’ and drafts 135k | World | News
European officials are continuing to report unidentified drones operating within NATO airspace, according to experts, as Russian forces purportedly launch devices from tankers in the country’s so called shadow fleet and utilise civilian vessels. Norway’s armed forces reported yesterday that the country’s armed forces observed drones near unspecified military facilities in Troms and Finnmark on Sunday evening, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported in its daily roundup of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A Norwegian airline reported that officials observed unidentified drones within the exclusion zone at Bronnoysund Airport in Nordland on Sunday, with the Romanian Ministry of National Defence reporting yesterday that witnesses reported unidentified drones in the Sontea Noua Canal area. Romanian authorities are also investigating fallen debris in the area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that intelligence suggests that Russian forces are likely launching drones to violate NATO airspace from tankers that are part of Moscow’s shadow fleet – a clandestine network of hundreds of vessels operated to avoid sanctions and policing.
The Ukrainian navy has also said that Russian forces are leveraging civilian vessels to conduct reconnaissance and sabotage missions in international waters, including targeting underwater cables with anchors.
It comes as Putin signed a decree yesterday authorising the conscription of 135,000 Russian citizens between October 1 and December 31 for 12 months of mandatory military service outside of the active combat zone in Ukraine.
The country holds two conscription cycles in the spring and autumn of every year, with the number of conscripts having grown each season since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, specialists say.
The Kremlin submitted to the State Duma yesterday a draft budget for 2026-2028 that called for 12.9trillion rubles (around £116billion) to go towards national defence expenditures in 2026.
This would represent a decrease from 13.5trillion rubles (around £121billion) in 2025.
The draft document also projects that defence spending will increase to 13.6trillion rubles (around £122billion) in 2027, before decreasing to 13 trillion rubles (around £117billion) in 2028.
Putin is being forced to increase some taxes to fund “defence and security”.
The country’s finance ministry announced an increase in value-added tax (VAT) from 20% to 22% starting January 2026, as well as a decrease in the annual revenue threshold for businesses that must pay VAT from 60million rubles (around £537,000) to 10million (around £89,000).
