US intel warns Russia could launch limited attack on NATO ally in effort to fragment organization: report

Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack a NATO member country in the next few years in an attempt to fragment the post-World War II organization and test Article 5, new U.S.intelligence has found, according to a report.While U.S.

intelligence had previously assessed that Putin wouldn’t launch an assault on a NATO country while still involved in the war in Ukraine, the Russian president is now looking for a victory as Ukraine makes gains, and the U.S.and Europe have seen increasing signs that he is testing the organization, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.That includes a drone that hit a Romanian apartment building in May and cruise missiles that landed in Poland late last month, a NATO country.RUSSIA PREPARING HYBRID ATTACKS ON NATO'S EASTERN FLANK, INTELLIGENCE WARNSRussian President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting in Moscow on Friday, Aug.

7, 2026.(Alexander Kazakov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin via AP)Article 5 of NATO states that an attack on one country is an attack on all countries.The assessment said it would likely be a limited attack that could range anywhere from a cyberattack to a small-scale land incursion and would likely be focused on the Baltics or Poland.The attack could happen any time between this fall and 2029, the assessment said."The question mark is how the United States would respond in that case," Heather Conley, senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, told the Journal.

"It has always been a goal [of Russia’s] to challenge the credibility of NATO and to separate the United States from its allies."THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT AMERICAN WEAPONS SYSTEMS NATO IS EAGER TO HAVEThe assessment also comes amid claims the United States’ munitions stockpile has been depleted by arms sent to support Ukraine and due to the war in Iran.Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, however, called those claims false.Police and forensic investigators examine the location of impact after a Russian drone struck an apart...