The admission from Kyiv that a drone exploded near the Romanian border, hot on the heels of strikes against cargo ships in the Black Sea, is a classic piece of modern geopolitical theatre. It is a small, sordid drama that encapsulates the intellectual and moral decadence of our age. One can almost hear the echoes of the late Roman Empire, where frontier skirmishes became elaborate performances designed to satisfy the crowd at home rather than achieve any strategic objective.
The Ukrainian government, having exhausted its military momentum, now resorts to these paltry provocations. It is a sign of weakness, not strength. The drone, no doubt a gift from some well-meaning but strategically blind NATO ally, flew not to win a war but to send a signal.
To whom? To the Romanian government? To the Russian bear?
Or perhaps to the increasingly restless European taxpayers who fund this endless conflict? The Black Sea, once a theatre of great power rivalry, has become a pond for toy boats and remote-controlled aircraft. The cargo ships struck were no doubt carrying grain, the new currency of this war.
But the real cargo being shipped is the hypocrisy of the West. We pretend to uphold the rules-based international order while simultaneously pushing the envelope of escalation. The drone near Romania is a feint, a test.
Will NATO blink? Will the alliance invoke Article 5 over a stray UAV? Of course not.
And that is precisely the point. The Ukrainian leadership knows that the West's attention is waning, its ammunition stockpiles dwindling, its public patience threadbare. So they stage these incidents to keep the headlines flowing.
It is a desperate hustle. We should not be fooled. The Fall of Rome was not a single event but a long procession of absurdities, each one more pitiful than the last.
The drone near the Romanian border is our generation's equivalent: a toy soldier in a game that lost its meaning months ago.
