Because We Can: Putin Vows Revenge as Nato Told to 'Show Its Teeth'

23 May 2026 | Moscow & Prague & Kyiv — Updated 21:30 GMT

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Starobilsk, rescue workers dig through concrete and twisted metal. A student dormitory — home to young people pursuing teaching degrees — lies in ruins. Six bodies have been pulled from the rubble. Dozens are wounded. Fifteen more are still unaccounted for.

Vladimir Putin watches the footage. His face is stone. He blames Ukraine. He promises revenge.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian officials do not flinch. "We targeted the Russian war machine," they say. An elite drone command unit. An oil refinery fuelling occupation forces. Command centres. Not civilians. Never civilians.

In Prague, a former general turned president issues a warning. Petr Pavel has sat across from Russian military leaders. He has heard them laugh at Nato's paralysis. Now he says the alliance must "show its teeth" — or risk losing everything.

MOSCOW/PRAGUE/KYIV – Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for what he described as a deadly drone attack on a student dormitory in Luhansk, a Russian-controlled region in eastern Ukraine, and has vowed to retaliate. Ukraine's military denied the Russian accusations and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area.

Putin said in a statement, carried by state TV on Friday, that he had ordered his military to prepare options to retaliate for the attack in Starobilsk that killed six people and wounded dozens, with 15 people still unaccounted for. He said Kyiv's military must have known what it was targeting.

'Pure Propaganda Show': Ukraine Rejects War Crimes Accusations

At a UN Security Council emergency meeting called by Russia, Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk Andrii rejected his Russian counterpart's accusations of war crimes, calling them a "pure propaganda show." He added that the operations on Friday "exclusively targeted the Russian war machine" with strikes neutralising an oil refinery "which was fuelling occupation forces, ammunition depots, air defence assets, and also command centres."

The conflicting narratives highlight the information war that accompanies every military engagement. For Moscow, the Starobilsk strike is a deliberate attack on civilians. For Kyiv, it is a legitimate military target — a dormitory that Russian forces had repurposed as barracks and command infrastructure.

Russian-installed authorities in Luhansk said the building was a student dormitory of the Starobilsk College of Luhansk Pedagogical University. Ukraine has not confirmed whether the building was being used for military purposes, but its denial of targeting civilians is unequivocal.

Nato Must 'Show Its Teeth', Czech President Warns

As the war grinds on, the Czech president, Petr Pavel — a retired general and former chair of the Nato military committee — has issued a stark warning to the alliance. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian in Prague, Pavel urged Nato to "show its teeth" in response to Russia's repeated testing of the alliance's resolve on its eastern flank.

He suggested a range of options: switching off Russia's internet, cutting off its banks from global financial systems, and shooting down jets that violate allied airspace. Pavel called for "decisive enough, potentially even asymmetric" responses to counter Moscow's provocative behaviour — or risk the Kremlin intensifying its actions.

"When I asked them why do they do these provocative actions in the air, close encounters or overflights over battleships in the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea, their answer was 'because we can'," Pavel said. "That's exactly the kind of behaviour we allowed."

He said Russian military leaders laughed at times at Nato's decision-making paralysis. After Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Pavel said Moscow had learned how Nato operated and "developed a behaviour style to almost meet the threshold for Article 5, but always keeping it slightly below that level."

Article 5 of the Nato treaty states that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all members — the alliance's core collective defence commitment.

Petr Pavel said Russia's military leaders laughed at times at Nato's decision-making paralysis.

'If We Do Not React, Russia Will Step Up'

A Nato jet fighter shot down a drone over Estonia this week, and similar incidents have disrupted everyday life in Latvia and Lithuania. In most cases, the drones are believed to be Ukrainian units targeting Russia that were jammed and redirected towards Nato territory by electronic warfare. Russia also accuses the Baltic states of working with Ukraine to launch drone attacks from their territories — an allegation they strongly deny.

"After the annexation of Crimea, we discussed many times the potential continuation of aggression, but my biggest fear was not an open military aggression against a Nato country, but rather a provocation below the Article 5 threshold," Pavel said.

If some European leaders "always prefer a diplomatic solution, even though Russians show no willingness for such," Nato risks being divided and unable to act, he said.

"Russia, unfortunately, does not understand nice language. They mostly understand the language of power, ideally accompanied with action … if violations of Nato airspace continue, we would have to come to a decision to shoot down either an unmanned or manned aircraft."

Pavel said the alliance should also consider "asymmetric" measures "that are not killing people, but are sensitive enough to make Russia understand this is not the way they should go."

"For example, switching off the internet or satellites — you saw what [difference] Starlink made on the battlefield — or cutting Russian banks from the financial system."

Echoing recent warnings from Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Pavel said that "if we do not react to the violations we face today, then Russia would probably step up."

US Troop Drawdown: From 80,000 to Something Smaller

US troop numbers in Europe are expected to drop from 80,000 after a review reflecting wider global commitments, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. In Helsingborg, Sweden, for a Nato foreign ministers meeting, Rubio said it was "well understood in the alliance that the United States' troop presence in Europe is going to be adjusted."

"You know, we have obligations in the Indo-Pacific, we have obligations in the Middle East, we have obligations in the western hemisphere," Rubio said.

Last week, the Pentagon said it would halt the rotation of 4,000 more troops into Poland, only for Trump to apparently reverse that decision on Thursday night on social media — a hasty announcement that appeared to catch the Pentagon by surprise.

The mixed messaging has left European allies uncertain about Washington's long-term commitment to the continent's defence, even as Pavel and others warn of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Nuclear Safety and Missing Soldiers

The UN's nuclear watchdog said on Friday that Ukrainian authorities had advised that a fire had broken out at the Dniprovska 750-kilovolt electrical substation due to military activity, causing a nuclear power station to be partially disconnected from off-site power. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said firefighters were tackling the fire.

Falling debris from drones triggered a fire at an oil terminal in Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, injuring two people and damaging several buildings, officials said early on Saturday. Ukrainian forces on Friday also attacked a Russian oil refinery in Yaroslavl, about 700km from the border. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said on X that Ukraine hit 11 Russian oil facilities this month as of 21 May, including Kirishi, one of Russia's largest refineries.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Ukrainians marched through Kyiv to demand that the government veto a bill they say could prematurely declare missing soldiers dead. The protest targeted Bill No. 13646, which addresses the legal status of missing persons. More than 90,000 people are listed as missing in Ukraine's registry — a staggering number that represents families living in limbo, unsure whether their loved ones are alive, dead, or imprisoned.

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