Overview
- The three-day Duma election is under way this weekend and Russian authorities say they have excluded anti-war lists while reporting large-scale air‑defence activity, including the claimed shootdown of hundreds of Ukrainian drones.
- NATO air policing has been active on the eastern flank with Italian Eurofighters scrambled to intercept Russian jets over Lithuania and to down an unidentified airborne threat during recent missions.
- An Italian Eurofighter at the Ta’if base in Saudi Arabia was struck in what officials say is likely a Houthi attack, with no Italian personnel injured and the defense minister ordering further operational assessments.
- Facing reduced EU contributions to the Aspides mission, Italy has written to EU leadership asking for immediate reinforcements and has signaled it will escort or authorize naval protection for Italian merchant ships through Bab el‑Mandeb if the mission remains insufficient.
- The strategic environment has hardened after the US president signed new legislation authorizing sanctions on Russia, adding economic pressure that European leaders say requires unity and measured military and diplomatic responses.