Europe presses on with ‘drone wall’ project as airspace violations mount

Brussels: European defence ministers agreed on Friday to develop a “drone wall” along their borders with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.

The decision comes after a spate of incidents in which Europe’s borders and airports have been tested by rogue drones. Russia has been blamed for some of them, but denies that anything was done on purpose or that it played a role.

On Friday, Ukrainian military intelligence said Russia had deliberately flown drones into the airspace of NATO member Poland this month to test the alliance’s response, stoke fatigue in member states with its war in Ukraine, and step up pressure on the West.

It sent the written assessment to Reuters after NATO jets shot down Russian drones that entered Polish airspace on September 9-10. This week, unidentified drones shut down air traffic in parts of Denmark, but Russia’s embassy in Copenhagen denied “absurd speculations” of its involvement.

Speaking after the Friday meeting of 10 countries on Europe’s eastern flank, European Union Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said the response to any Russian threat must be “firm, united and immediate”.

Representatives from Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Denmark attended Friday’s video conference. Ukrainian and NATO officials also took part in the talks.

Kubilius said the drone shield could take a year to build, and that envoys from the countries would meet soon to develop “a detailed conceptual and technical road map” on the way ahead. The top priority was an “effective detection system”, he said.

The drone wall is likely to be discussed by EU leaders at a summit in Copenhagen next week, and later again in October when they meet in Brussels.

Kubilius said Europe’s defence industry would also be brought on board.“Today’s meeting was a milestone – now, we focus on delivery,” he said.

Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have been working on a drone wall project, but in March, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, rejected a joint Estonia-Lithuania request for funds to set one up.

Things have changed this month, though, with the Russian drone incursions into Poland and Romania, and the closure of Danish airports due to the unknown drone threat.

“The hybrid war is ongoing and all countries in the European Union will experience it,” Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters in Warsaw after the drone wall talks.

“The threat from the Russian Federation is serious. We must respond to it in a very radical manner.”

He urged all EU partners to get involved in the project, saying that the incidents at Danish airports in recent days made it clear that “the threat is not only to the eastern flank, but that the launch of drones may occur from a ship or vessel that is nearby”.

Ukrainian military intelligence said airspace violations had become “systematic” during Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine, and the recent incursion into Poland was also designed to intimidate the Polish people.

It assessed that there had been 10 violations of Moldovan airspace by Russian drones this year, and that 14 drones had crashed on Romanian territory during attacks on nearby port infrastructure in Ukraine since 2023.

A new reality

On Thursday, in a social media post addressed to the nation, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the drone incidents in her country were part of a new reality facing Europe, in which hybrid attacks were fiercer and more frequent.

She said Danish authorities had still not determined who was behind the incidents, but that Russia was currently the primary threat to European security.

“These are attacks we must expect more of. These are attacks that have exposed vulnerabilities,” she said, adding that Danes should also prepare for more sabotage, cyberattacks and the destruction of subsea cables.

Neighbouring Sweden had offered to lend Denmark a military anti-drone system ahead of the two summits involving dozens of EU leaders in Copenhagen next week, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told broadcaster TV4.

He said the system had the capability to “shoot down drones”. It was not immediately clear whether Denmark accepted the offer.

The drone security threat will be high on the agenda when the 27 EU leaders meet on Wednesday. More than a dozen other leaders will join them for a European Political Community summit on Thursday.

Speaking to EU politicians, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month that Europe “must heed the call of our Baltic friends and build a drone wall”, describing the measure as not an abstract ambition but “the bedrock of credible defence”.

It should be, she said, “a European capability developed together, deployed together, and sustained together, that can respond in real time. One that leaves no ambiguity as to our intentions. Europe will defend every inch of its territory.”

Von der Leyen said that €6 billion ($10.7 billion) would be earmarked to set up a drone alliance with Ukraine, whose armed forces have used unmanned aerial vehicles to inflict around two-thirds of all military equipment losses sustained by Russian forces.

Tensions have mounted on NATO’s eastern flank in recent weeks. Apart from the drone incidents, Estonia last week accused Russia of sending three fighter jets into its airspace.

On Friday, the Kremlin said talk of shooting down Russian military planes over Europe was reckless, aggressive and marked a serious escalation of tension near Russia’s border.

AP, Reuters, Bloomberg