The European Union failed to agree new sanctions against Russia after France and Luxembourg blocked the plan; EU sanctions need approval from all 27 member countries.
This week French officials, European spy chiefs and other reports warned that Russia is preparing more direct action against NATO countries.
Poland's president and prime minister say Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning a direct attack on a NATO member country, along with hidden, deniable attacks (called 'hybrid attacks') on countries near Ukraine.
This week the European Union took three steps at once: a plan to standardize how it detects and responds to sabotage blamed on Russia, faster EU rules for member states to jointly buy weapons, and talks for Estonia to join a French nuclear protection arrangement.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has proposed a new EU-only alarm system that would let any of the Union's 27 member states trigger a joint EU response to security crises that fall short of an outright armed attack.
NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that flew into airspace over Lithuania, a NATO member country in the Baltic region.
Finland has joined a nuclear deterrence deal with France that lets French fighter jets use Finnish airfields, but without the shared-defense commitments that NATO membership normally requires.
German security officials have identified two suspects, with high probability, behind a drone flying over Leipzig/Halle airport, according to leaked files reported by Welt am Sonntag.
Germany's police will train in Ukraine against Russian hybrid warfare — tactics like sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation used without declaring war outright.
This week Finland finished a 200-kilometre border fence, Latvia's ban on Russian and Belarusian books and goods took effect, and Germany and Russia expelled diplomats after a drone was found near a plane at a German airport.
In one week, Germany announced anti-drone units for nine cities after drone incidents including one over Leipzig, Poland asked EU countries to expel up to 40 percent of Russian diplomats, and the German city of Bonn closed a Russian consulate accused of being a spy center.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent three hours meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow, then went to Kyiv for more talks aimed at ending the war.