"But we have to assume that Russia wants to test the unity of the West." According to Kahl, the precise timing of any potential Russian "testing" of Article 5 depends on the course of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine which,

Moscow's military struck the middle of a town in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces have been advancing, killing at least 11 people, including five children, and leaving a further 30 injured, the officials said. Three more people died and seven were wounded in a separate drone attack on the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers say Russian special forces walked inside of a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region