Russia is keen to disrupt, weaken or even divide NATO and one way of encouraging that might be to convince the U.S. that war is coming with the alliance in Europe and to ask America if it wants to be dragged into it. This especially matters as Trump's incoming administration forms its policies toward NATO and Russia.

North Korea has suffered “several hundred” casualties while fighting alongside Russian forces against Ukraine in the Kursk border region, a senior US military official said, a much higher toll than one given by Kyiv earlier this week.