EU countries and Ukraine hold talks on ‘drone wall’ to counter growing threat
Numerous European countries are holding talks this afternoon on the bloc’s plans for “a drone wall” to counter growing threat of incursions from Russia or other actors.
The issue is seen as increasingly urgent after recent Russian drone incursions into Lithuania, Poland and Romania, and recent run of so far unattributed drone sightings over Denmark.
Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine are all taking part in discussions.
The talks are led by EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius, with Nato also involved “at the technical level.”
Key events
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen was expected to appear on a panel on European defence at the Global Progress Action Summit 2025 in London starting just now (UK live blog), but – perhaps not entirely surprisingly – she’s not taking part as she leads the Danish government’s response to this week’s drone incidents.
UK defence minister John Healey is on the panel though. You can watch it here and follow for more news lines on our UK blog.
Kubilius also chooses to give a curiously peculiar theoretical example of threat from Russia, as he says:
“Some experts are saying that Russians can use, for example, this shadow fleet ships, … no web operation on the ship, you can have containers, you can come to the coast of whatever country or whatever port, and then you can send drones … [as] just provocation, hybrid provocation, around airports or around ports, or something even more [important].”
This concludes this press conference.
Northern Europe showed solidarity to southern, western EU countries during Covid; now it’s our turn to get their solidarity, Finnish defence minister says
That’s a tasty quote from Finland’s defence minister Antti Häkkänen.
Asked about how to convince the southern and western EU countries to support the countries most at risk from Russia, he says:
“We think that because northern Europe [showed] solidarity to southern Europe during the pandemic, now it’s our turn, that the eastern flank countries and the northern Europe’s countries must also [get] the solidarity from the western and southern Europe.
Everyone has some kind of a crises in some years, and now it’s our turn.”
Denmark has no plans to invoke Nato’s Article 4 talks on drone incidents, foreign minister says
Separately, we have a confirmation from Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen that Denmark has no plans to invoke Nato’s Article 4 over this week’s drone sightings across the country.
Article 4 provides a forum for consultation between allies “whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
“Article 4 has been activated nine times in Nato’s entire history, and twice recently in relation to Poland and Estonia, so we have no reason to do so,” he told reporters.
It is separate from the more serious Article 5 framework which provides that attack on one ally is an attack on all of them.
Kubilius says that part of the challenge is to find solutions that work at long distances, as he gets a question about Finland’s 1300 km border with Russia, and Lithuania’s 900 km border with Russia and Belarus.
“We need to recognise that at the moment … [the] effectiveness to fire drones was not at the level which we need to have,” he says, and adds EU countries need to find a way to become more “effective.”
On timeline, Kubilius says the ministers agreed to delegate further talks to nominated negotiators – or “sherpas” in EU parlance – to have another meeting “very soon.”
“There are different options, different national developments, we need to see what is at the moment, what is the most urgent priority,” he says.
“But what I see, for example, from Baltic states, Poland, and especially those provocations with the drones, the recent ones, I see [it] as a priority … to have effective detection system,” he says.
He says some experts suggest the EU could complete the drone wall project within a year, although he acknowledges he is “not sure” about that timeline.
He says learning from Ukraine and its broader defence ecosystem will be critically important.
EU ‘needs to develop additional capabilities’ which ‘we lack at the moment’ to fight drones, EU defence minister says
Kubilius says that looking at Ukraine’s experiences, it is clear that the EU “needs to develop additional capabilities, which we perhaps lack at the moment.”
He says the task begins with “detection capabilities” including a range of radars, acoustic sensor and other equipment to detect all drones, including smaller aircraft flying at low altitudes.
He stresses that should be “our first priority.”
He says that the conversation then moves to how to take down drones, starting with electronic warfare, including very effective jamming being used by Ukraine, or more direct with drone interceptors.
“We need to look how we can build those capacities in our defence lines,” he says.
He adds that then there are also options of using “traditional, classical artillery” against drones, which Ukrainians “use in a very effective way.”
He says that there is need to be clever about it, because otherwise you use “missiles that maybe cost a million to kill a drone that costs 10,000 [euros].”
Häkkänen says “there is a lot of equipment in the market, so we just have to assess what kind of equipment” is needed.
He stresses that Ukrainians are “key” and have “best knowledge in Europe” on what works and what doesn’t.
Finnish defence minister Antti Häkkänen says “recent incidents show that there is a need to analyse jointly our concrete next steps,” as he talks abotu the need to come up with “a broad range of capabilities” to tackle drones and other threats.
Kubilius says he hopes for EU leaders to offer political momentum for progressing these plans during the European Council in October, so then planners can move forward to develop a “detailed conceptual and technical roadmap.”
‘Russia is testing EU and Nato,’ EU defence commissioner warns after talks on drones
EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius is now briefing the press after the videoconference on the “drone wall.”
He says the new initiative needs “to stop what we have seen recently,” as he has “we understand all those provocations, testing, [which is] very dangerous.”
He says that in addition to the previously disclosed participants (13:07), Hungary also joined the call.
He says Ukraine’s defence minister Denys Shmyhal offered “very informative” presentation providing EU countries with “battle-tested” expertise.
“We are facing clear challenges. Russia is testing the EU and Nato, and our response must be firm, united and immediate,” he says.
