For Putin, war with Europe has never looked so tempting

When Vladimir Putin says he is “ready” for war with Europe, he means it.

- MARK ALMOND

So much discussion about the talks between Donald Trump’s team and Putin gives the impression that either the Americans will strong-arm Ukraine into swallowing a deal acceptable to the Kremlin, or, failing that, the war in Ukraine will just grind on. But no one should ignore the third option: the risk of war spreading.

Western sanctions have tried to strangle Russia’s oil exports in an effort to contain funding for Putin’s war effort. But Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the SBU, has been waging a sabotage campaign against Russian shipping far beyond Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. Attacking Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers in the Baltic as well as the Black Sea could draw Russian retaliation to coastal states like Denmark or Romania, both of whom also provide much aid to Ukraine.

Russian drones and missiles have hit the Romanian side of the Ukrainian border as Moscow tries to strangle trade down the Danube to Ukrainian ports there.