The European Union (EU) has pledged to spend €2 billion on drones for Ukraine, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has announced.
The bloc also committed to work with Kyiv and Nato to “fast forward” the development of a defensive “drone wall” to shield eastern member states from aerial incursions by Russia.
Senior EU and Nato officials discussed the threat of drones and other security issues ahead of large gatherings of European leaders on Wednesday and Thursday in Copenhagen, where specialists from Ukraine and several Nato member states are helping Danish authorities strengthen their anti-drone defences.
“If we continue to believe that Ukraine is our first line of defence, we need to step up our military assistance to Ukraine. Concretely, we have agreed with Ukraine that a total of €2 billion will be spent on drones. This allows Ukraine to scale up its drone production capacity and will allow the EU to benefit from this technology,” von der Leyen said in Brussels on Tuesday.
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“On the flagship-project Eastern Flank Watch we need to act now,” she added, referring to an EU initiative announced this month to bolster defences in eastern member states, which has as its centrepiece plans for a drone wall – inter-operative national systems to swiftly detect and destroy suspicious drones.
“Europe must deliver a strong and united response to Russia’s drone incursions at our borders. That is why we will propose immediate actions to create the drone wall ... We must move fast forward – together with Ukraine and in close co-ordination with Nato,” Ms von der Leyen said after talks to Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.
Drones disrupted flights at six airports in Denmark last week, jangling nerves ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Copenhagen on Wednesday and summit of the broader 47-state European Political Community on Thursday.
Russia has denied being behind the drone disruption, but its drones strike Ukrainian cities and infrastructure every night and earlier this month several of them flew into the airspace of Nato members Poland and Romania.
[ Denmark calls in Nato help after series of drone incursionsOpens in new window ]
Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and Finland are among the countries to have sent personnel and technology to Denmark to boost its anti-drone defences this week, and Kyiv said on Tuesday that it had also sent experts to Copenhagen.
“Our group of specialists ... arrived to take part in the joint exercises with partners, which could become the foundation for a new system to counter Russian and any other drones,” said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Ukraine’s experience is the most relevant in Europe today, and it is precisely our expertise, our specialists and our technologies that can become a key element of future Europe’s drone wall.”
Moscow criticised the drone wall and the growing focus in EU and Nato states on the perceived drone threat posed by Russia, three and a half years into its full-scale invasion of pro-western Ukraine – Europe’s biggest war since 1945.
“We see they stick to this militaristic approach instead of considering how to engage in dialogue so as to jointly seek security guarantees,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. “The creation of walls is always bad, as history shows.”
Russian and Ukrainian forces both claimed to have gained more ground in different parts of eastern Ukraine, amid renewed fears for the safety of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – the largest such facility in Europe.
[ Russian missiles and drones strike Ukraine during 12-hour attackOpens in new window ]
Ukraine and Russia blame each other for shelling that has repeatedly cut external power to the plant, which has been operating on emergency diesel generators since last Wednesday.
It is not clear how long the plant’s diesel stocks will last, amid a growing fuel crisis in Russia and occupied territory due to Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s oil facilities.
