European leaders meet at the Danish high security summit after disruption of the drone

EU leaders meet in Copenhagen on Wednesday under pressure to stimulate European defense after a series of Russian incursions in the EU airspace, and a few days after drones targeted Danish airports.

The incursions have become the most acute for countries on the eastern flank of the EU such as Poland and Estonia. Ten Member States have already supported the plans of a “drone wall” with several layers to detect quickly, then follow and destroy Russian drones.

Denmark strengthened security before the summit, prohibiting all theft of civilian drones until Friday and imposing heavy traffic restrictions in Copenhagen.

Despite high security, there was little alarm evidence in the center of the capital before the summit.

Denmark will also organize a broader summit in the European political community on Thursday and the international allies have supported to ensure that the two events pass without incident.

Copenhagen airport, followed by several Danish airports and military sites in the Jutland peninsula, was faced with drone disruptions last week.

Anti-drone and surveillance support has been provided from Poland, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and the United States. A German frigate also accosted in Copenhagen.

As a host of dozens of European leaders over two days, Denmark will want to repel other unwanted surprises in its airspace.

Danish police did not find any evidence that Russia was late on last week’s drone disruptions, which caused no injury, but the government blamed a “professional actor”. Prime Minister Put Frederiksen said that there was “mainly a country that constitutes a threat to Europe’s security-that is, Russia”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf KrisSson also said that “everything indicates (Russia)”.

Stockholm has lent “a handful of powerful radar systems” to his neighbor for the two summits, according to KrisSSSON.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said kyiv sends a mission to Denmark for joint exercises to provide “Ukrainian experience in the defense of drones”.

The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said before the summit that the incursions of airspace were getting more and more and “reasonable to assume that drones come from Russia”.

Drones have been seen in recent days in the northern state of Germany in Schleswig-Holstein, and thefts were delayed in last week at Vilnius airport in Lithuania and at Oslo airport in Norway due to drones activity.

“We are not at war, but we are no longer at peace either. We have to do much more for our own security,” Merz told a media event in Düsseldorf this week.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was obvious that Germany had long been “indirectly involved” in the war in Ukraine and that he rejected “unfounded accusations” of Russian involvement in last week’s disruption in Denmark.

“Europe would do better to seek a dialogue on security issues rather than trying to build a” drone wall “of division, he said on Tuesday.

This is the concern of Russian activity on the European eastern flank that NATO encountered for consultations twice in September under article 4 of its treaty, first after drones violated Polish airspace, then when the Russian war aircraft of MIG-31 entered Estonian airspace for 12 minutes.

“We have to ensure the security of our sky,” said NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, who met the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on the eve of the Copenhagen summit.

The idea of ​​a drone wall was raised a month ago by Von Der Leyen, and Rutte said that it was “in a timely and necessary time because we cannot ultimately spend millions of euros or dollars on missiles to eliminate drones which cost only a few thousand dollars”.

An EU superior diplomat told the BBC that there were still questions about the financing of the plan and the order and control, but the response of Europe to the violations of Russia drones in Poland had led to a serious interruption of the soul: “We must be more agile and find better tools.”

A former Danish army brigadier, Ole Kvaerno, told the BBC that the drone wall was “a political and very generic concept at the moment”, but that the activity of last week’s drones on his country had been a wake -up for the wider Danish authorities and population.

He warned that the target of the next attack could be different.

“It could be an infrastructure such as energy supply,” said Kvaerno of the Danish Center for Defense Robotics and Automy. “The nature of the hybrid war is that it is intended to take us by surprise. So we have not finished shocks like this.”

Another flagship project, called Eastern Flank Watch, aims to strengthen the eastern borders of the EU by sea, air and earth to protect itself against the so-called hybrid war, as well as the fleet of the shadow of Russia. Von Der Leyen said the EU should collaborate with NATO and Ukraine.

EU leaders will be shown plans for a “roadmap” aimed at strengthening the defenses and developing the defense industries of Europe by the end of the decade to produce advanced military equipment. The plans will then be worked with NATO before EU leaders will reinstall themselves later this month.

According to the plans to be “ready for 2030”, Europe must move now so that its capacities are prepared for “the battlefields of tomorrow”.

One of the fundamental ideas is to focus more and more on joint supply. The EU has already supported the proposals to raise up to 150 billion euros (130 billion pounds sterling) on ​​the capital markets to help finance the investment of the defense. The United Kingdom and Canada are likely to participate in the fund.

EU’s financial support in Ukraine will also be discussed, more than three and a half years in Russia’s large -scale war.

Ukraine is also a candidate to join the EU, but faces a hardening of the opposition of Hungary and tensions along their common border, after Kyiv accused Budapest of sending recognition drones to west of Ukraine.

The Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who is one of the allies closest to Russia in the EU, said that Ukraine was “not a sovereign country” because he was funded by the West.