NATO's supreme commander in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, said the alliance is prepared to fight immediately if it is attacked, according to Sky TG24. His remarks were carried across Italian outlets on Tuesday, with la Repubblica framing them as a direct challenge to Moscow and Il Foglio describing them as a "theory of victory" against President Vladimir Putin.
The statement came as European Union governments approved a large new package of sanctions, Sky TG24 reports. Moscow responded sharply, saying Europe is doing everything it can to keep the conflict from ending.
Why it matters
The exchange hardened positions on two tracks at once: the military posture of the Western alliance and the economic pressure it applies to Russia. NATO's message was about deterrence — that its forces would not need a long buildup if the alliance itself came under attack. The EU's sanctions package added economic weight to that stance.
At the same time, diplomatic efforts to reduce the fighting remained unresolved. A proposed 60-day ceasefire meant to allow elections in Ukraine has run into resistance from Moscow, and talks on a narrower energy truce have produced no concrete result.
Fighting continues as diplomacy stalls
A Russian missile struck a residential building in Kharkiv, killing four people and wounding dozens, according to Sky TG24. The attack underlined how far the situation on the ground remains from any pause in hostilities.
In the Black Sea, two more vessels were hit off Bulgaria's coast, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said. Radev wrote on Facebook that he would summon the Russian ambassador over what he called unacceptable attacks, and that he had informed NATO. He said an initial alert came at about 01:30 local time concerning a ship in distress. According to the crew, the vessel — sailing under a Maltese flag and Ukrainian-owned — was rescued after being struck by three aerial drones, Radev said. He added that a second ship was later hit and sank, and that one crew member was saved.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv's partners gave no advance warning of an attack on the capital involving five ballistic missiles, Ukrinform reported. Writing on Facebook, Zelensky said the missiles hit civilian infrastructure and that early information about ballistic launches saves lives by helping to prevent deaths.
Intelligence sharing and a disputed diesel deal
Ukraine's foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, said at the Warsaw Security Forum that US intelligence sharing with Kyiv is continuing, according to Ukrinform. Asked whether Ukraine still receives American intelligence, Sybiga said the cooperation goes on. He noted that an air alert was declared late in the evening but attributed it to a particular type of weapon Russia used.
Ukrinform recalled that the Financial Times, citing sources, had reported that US representatives threatened to halt intelligence sharing if Ukraine kept striking refineries inside Russia.
The diesel question has also drawn attention. US President Donald Trump announced a suspension of sanctions to let Moscow sell diesel, and criticized the EU — which had objected to the arrangement — for its own purchases of Russian fossil fuels. Trump said the EU had bought roughly 250 billion dollars' worth of Russian fossil fuels over the same period.
EU sources, citing the Comext database run by the European Commission, said the bloc paid Russia about 197 billion euros, or 209 billion dollars, for fossil fuel imports since the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, with the data starting in March 2022. The figures use an exchange rate of 1.06 dollars per euro. The same sources said that without the RePowerEU plan, the EU would have spent 475 billion euros on Russian fossil fuels — 278 billion more. The EU still buys fossil fuels from Moscow but far less than before: in 2023, only 6 percent of the bloc's total fossil fuel spending went to Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said EU sanctions can "undoubtedly hinder" the Russia-US diesel arrangement, according to the Tass news agency. Peskov also said contacts on a possible energy truce between Russia and Ukraine are continuing but without substantive progress, adding that the topic had been discussed the previous day and he had nothing further to add. His comments followed Trump's announcement that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an energy truce and would stop striking each other's energy infrastructure.
Trump also said Putin wants a deal on an energy truce more than Zelensky does, according to Sky TG24.
Kyiv presses for pressure, and warns against support for Moscow
Zelensky renewed his call for the international community to press Russia, writing on Telegram that Ukraine's position is unchanged: Kyiv is ready to take mirror steps toward de-escalation, and effective pressure on Russia is needed for that de-escalation to happen. He said wars end when the aggressor realizes it cannot drag them out further, and that global pressure on Russia helps bring peace closer. He warned that supporting Russia directly or indirectly works against that goal.
The competing signals — NATO's readiness statement, the EU's sanctions, continued strikes and stalled truce talks — leave the next move unclear. Watch whether the energy truce contacts produce anything concrete, and whether the 60-day ceasefire proposal survives Moscow's resistance.
