Brussels (AP) – European Defense Minister agreed to development on Friday “Drone Wall” Along the border between Russia and Ukraine, it better detect, track and intercept drones that violate European airspace.
The decision will be made later If the best incident European borders and airports are being tested by fraudulent drones. Russia has been criticized for some of them, but denying that anything was done intentionally or that it played a role.
“Russia is testing the EU and NATO. Our response needs to be unified and immediate,” said Andrius Kubilius, the EU defense commissioner, after chairing a virtual meeting of 10 countries on the eastern side of Europe. Ukrainians and NATO officials also participated in the discussion.
Kubilius said drone shields can take a year to build and they will develop a “detailed conceptual and technical roadmap” to the future for envoys from that country to meet soon. He said the number one priority is an “effective detection system.”
The drone wall could be discussed by EU leaders at a summit held in Copenhagen next week, and then again when they meet in Brussels in October. Kubilius said that the European defence industry will also be mounted.
“Today’s meeting was a milestone. Now we’re focusing on delivery,” he said.
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are working on drone wall projects, but in March the European Commission, the EU’s administrative division, rejected a request for joint funding for Estonia-Lithuania.
However, things have changed this month.
The NATO Jets scrambled on September 10th shoot down Many Russian drones violated Polish airspace in their expensive response to relatively inexpensive threats. That’s what Denmark airports did It was temporarily closed After a drone flew nearby this week.
“A hybrid war is ongoing and every country in the European Union will experience it,” Polish defense minister Vladislo Kosiniak Kamsses told reporters in Warsaw after the drone wall spoke. “The threat from the Russian Federation is serious. We must respond in a very radical way.”
He urged all EU partners to participate in the project, saying that the recent incident at a Danish airport revealed that “the threat could arise not only from the eastern side, but also from nearby ships or vessels.
On Thursday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen said in a social media post addressed to the state that unmanned incidents in her country are part of a new reality facing Europe, with hybrid attacks becoming more intense and more frequent.
She said that while Danish authorities have not yet decided who is behind the incident, Russia is currently a major threat to European security.
Nearby Sweden has offered to lend Denmark to military anti-drone systems ahead of two summits involving dozens of EU leaders in Copenhagen next week, Swedish Prime Minister Wolf Christerson told broadcaster TV4.
He said the system has the ability to “shoot down the drone.” It was not immediately clear whether Denmark had accepted the offer.
The 27 EU leaders met on Wednesday, and the threat of drone security appears to be high on their agenda. They will be joined by more than a dozen other leaders for the European Political Community Summit on Thursday.
Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe must “be careful of the calls of our Baltic friends and build drone walls.”
“This is not an abstract ambition. It’s a reliable foundation for defense.” Von der Leyen He told EU lawmakers.
She said, “European capabilities can develop together, be deployed together, maintained together, and respond in real time. We leave no ambiguity about our intentions. Europe protects every inch of its territory.”
Von Der Leyen said 6 billion euros ($7 billion) would be allocated to establish a drone alliance with Ukraine.
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Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw and Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.
