From Estonia to Romania, a sudden “wave” of mysterious drones appears. The script is familiar: blame Russia, stoke public fear, and prepare the ground for a wider conflict they can no longer win by proxy.

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A Coordinated Campaign of Fear

In the past week, a curious phenomenon has swept across Eastern Europe. Estonia, Poland, Denmark, and Romania have all reported unauthorized drones violating their airspace. In near-unison, officials and media outlets point the finger at Russia.

@10newsau

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned we are now witnessing the most destructive arms race in history, as he again appealed for help to stop Russia. His speech to the UN comes as European airports are once again closed due to unauthorised drone sightings, with the Danish Prime Minister pointing the finger at Russia. Follow the link in bio for the full story. #ukraine #russia

♬ original sound – 10 News

Moscow denies it. But in the West, denial is treated as confirmation.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s a coordinated political strategy. NATO, facing a catastrophic failure of its proxy war in Ukraine, is now actively manufacturing a pre-war climate to salvage its collapsing strategy and justify its existence.

In spring 2022, the West promised Ukraine freedom and democracy, security and prosperity. Today, most freedoms have been compromised under the fog of war. Democratic institutions are overshadowed by external interests and domestic oligarchs. Many national assets have been mortgaged to Western interests for years to come.

Had Ukraine followed the development trajectory, its economy would not be the size of Algeria in 2030. It would be a half-trillion-dollar economy, like Iran or South Africa. Per capita income would be more than 40% higher than today. Economic opportunities might have reversed some of the migration flows back to Ukraine, which would have over 10 million more inhabitants than today.

The proxy war between the US-led West and Russia in Ukraine has proved just as catastrophic as projected in 2022 and thereafter. It has contributed to secular stagnation in the US and particularly in Europe where the misallocation of scarce allocations from welfare to rearmament is compounding a series of cost-of-living crises. Coming at the heel of the global pandemic, the consequent food and energy crises have severely aggravated the challenges of the Global South. And if the war is allowed to fester further, global economic prospects will be penalized even worse.

What happens in Ukraine will not stay in Ukraine. As long as aggressive geopolitics is favored at the expense of proactive international diplomacy, even promising futures can turn into dark wastelands.

The original commentary was published by China-US Focus on August 28, 2025

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1. The “Mysterious” Drones: A Too-Convenient Crisis

The timing is impeccable. As Ukraine loses ground and Western support wanes, a wave of unexplained drones suddenly appears over multiple NATO countries.

• There are no clear photos.

• There is no concrete evidence.

• There are only assertions from the same governments that promised us “WMDs in Iraq.”

This is not about security. It is about psychology. It is about making the threat of war feel real and imminent to the European public.

@maxfostercnn

Mystery drones increase crisis level in Denmark. #denmark #drones #europe #airport

♬ original sound – Max Foster | News Journalist

2. The Real Goal: From Proxy War to Direct Confrontation

The West invested everything in a single bet: that Ukraine could cripple Russia. That bet has failed.

• Hundreds of billions in weapons and aid have vanished into a stalemate.

• Ukrainian manpower is exhausted.

• The Russian economy has adapted, not collapsed.

Faced with this reality, the warmongers in Brussels and Washington have only one path left: escalation. By provoking a direct NATO-Russia incident, they create the casus belli needed to intervene openly. Their hope is to drag a reluctant United States, and specifically Donald Trump, into a war they cannot win alone.

3. Brainwashing the Next Generation: “It’s Normal to Talk About War”

The most sinister part of this campaign is its target: children.

In Sweden, authorities are now interviewing schoolchildren about their “readiness for war.” In Denmark, headlines scream that the nation is unprepared, creating a sense of vulnerability and urgency.

This is not preparedness. This is psychological conditioning. They are normalizing the idea of war in the minds of the young, creating a generation that accepts conflict as inevitable. This is how a society is primed for sacrifice.

4. The Ultimate Distraction: War as a Political Shield

Back home, European citizens are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, rampant inflation, and crumbling public services. What better way to distract from domestic failure than to unveil an external enemy?

A population that is fearing for its survival does not question why their heating bills have tripled. A citizenry that is preparing for bunkers does not protest against their declining real wages.

War, or the fear of war, is the perfect smokescreen for incompetent leaders and a failing economic model. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1MimKg8rwV/

5. The Delusion of Victory: Do They Understand What They’re Unleashing?

European leaders, insulated in their Brussels bubble, are playing with existential fire. They speak of war with Russia as if it were a larger version of Ukraine—a conventional conflict with a tidy conclusion.

“The war in Ukraine remains the most central and consequential crisis for Europe’s future…It is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It is Europe’s destiny ”— Politico, 24 February 2025.

They seem to have forgotten the arsenals of nuclear weapons pointed at their capitals. They are so desperate to maintain their geopolitical relevance that they are risking total destruction. Either they are ignorant of what modern war between nuclear powers means, or they are so intoxicated by power that they believe they will be spared.

The March of Folly 

The drone scare is not a security alert. It is a political weapon. The interviews with children are not educational; they are indoctrination. The calls for preparedness are not prudent; they are a march towards the abyss.

Europe’s leaders, having failed in Ukraine, are now trying to save face by risking a continent-wide war. They are creating an enemy to justify their existence, conditioning their children to die for it, and distracting their populations from the decay at home.

This is not strategy. It is suicide dressed up as policy.