RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

Moscow methodically documents each gap in the American arsenal — with the precision of an adversary taking notes. TASS publishes three separate articles the same day. The first cites the Wall Street Journal: more than 1,000 Tomahawks and between 1,500 and 2,000 critical interceptors (THAAD and Patriot) were fired. Restocking arsenals 'could take up to six years.' TASS adds a detail Western media buries: the shortage of air defense munitions 'will affect combat capacity of American forces in Asia.'

TASS's second article cites the New York Times: 'The United States will have to make difficult choices about which areas to maintain military capabilities in.' Colonel (retired) Mark Cancian of CSIS is quoted: 'Certain critical ground-attack and anti-missile munitions were in deficit before the war and remain so now.'

The third angle is diplomatic: the Kremlin, through Dmitry Peskov, states that the EU 'attempts to compensate for NATO erosion' by declaring Russia an enemy and creating a new security demarcation line. Peskov reads the European autonomous defense project as proof NATO is disintegrating from within.

For Moscow, these three articles form a strategic triptych: America is running out of munitions, NATO is fracturing, and Europe is building its own defense because it no longer trusts Washington. This is precisely the scenario the Kremlin has dreamed of since 2014.