Following the United States’ approval for Ukraine to use its weapons systems inside of Russia, Putin decided to launch an intermediate-range missile called the Oreshnik into Ukraine.
This was initially mistaken for a nuclear capable ICBM, but that was cleared up rather quickly. Turns out it is a missile the Russians developed illegally while pretending to abide by an arms control agreement. The important detail in all of this is that the Russians completely misread the room. They thought by flexing their missile capabilities that NATO unity might be fractured, and they could assert some dominance, but that backfired.
Many EU nations are increasingly arming Ukraine and taking a firmer stance against Russia, and some other factors are also increasing European solidarity. With regional security in question, European countries are locking arms and uniting against the Russians.
