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# Putin tests NATO’s nerves
- URL: https://www.europeans.today/2025/09/15/putin-tests-nato-s-nerves/
- Published: 2025-09-15T00:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-15T15:30:06.000Z
- Description: European leaders unite behind NATO, supporting Poland and Romania, as Putin’s repeated provocations test but fail to break the alliance’s defences and resolve across the continent for now. | Today’s Political Cartoon.
- Author: TODAY's Cartoons
- Tags: Today's Cartoon, Russia vs The West, Vladimir Putin, TODAY+, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Vladimir Putin’s military provocations, from [Zapad drills](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-belarus-start-military-exercise-near-nato-border-after-drone-incursion-2025-09-12/?ref=europeans.today) to [drone incursions](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80g7g5rmlno?ref=europeans.today) in European airspace and missile displays in [Kaliningrad](https://www.newsweek.com/russia-radar-antenna-nato-kaliningrad-2129320?ref=europeans.today), are meant to test NATO’s resolve.

Yet European leaders, from Macron to Starmer, Meloni, and Merkel, stand together with Poland and Romania [behind the alliance’s shield](https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/poland-romania-drone-ukraine-nato-russia-putin-b2826703.html?ref=europeans.today), signalling unity against Moscow’s attempts to destabilise the continent’s security, and are unwilling to let Putin’s pokes fracture their defence.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2025/09/0000378-min--1-.jpg)

European leaders are unwilling to let Putin’s pokes fracture their defence.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2021/09/end-flat-1.png) 

### **GOING FURTHER**

- ###### [Russia and Belarus start military exercise near NATO border after drone incursion](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-belarus-start-military-exercise-near-nato-border-after-drone-incursion-2025-09-12/?ref=europeans.today) | REUTERS
- ###### [Romania becomes second Nato country to report Russian drone in its airspace](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80g7g5rmlno?ref=europeans.today) | BBC NEWS
- ###### [Nato’s new red lines could turn Ukraine into a no man’s land](https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/poland-romania-drone-ukraine-nato-russia-putin-b2826703.html?ref=europeans.today) | THE INDEPENDENT

  
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### **Sources:**

##### ▪ This piece was first published in Europeans TODAY.   

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