Ukraine could help the EU to protect key targets against drones, in a role reversal in the current war, but there could never be a “drone wall” that would stop them all in a Russia-Nato conflict, defence experts have said.
Drones were a hot topic at an informal EU summit in Copenhagen on Wednesday and Thursday (2 October).
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, for instance, spoke of “a European network of anti-drone measures that can … neutralise intrusion from outside”.
French president Emmanuel Macron called for “advanced early-warning systems to better anticipate threats”.
And EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, whose services were to draft a detailed anti-drone plan, doubled down on her “wall” catchphrase, which was coined in the wake of a Russian drone incursion in Poland on 9 September.
Suspected Russian drones had also shut down Danish airports in the run-up to the summit.
And Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania have all suffered suspected Russian surveillance drone flights in the past three months.
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Andrew Rettman