The two EU countries close to Moscow, excluded from the first discussions on the “Drones Wall” at the Eastern Border of the Union

Hungary and Slovakia have not been invited to the high level video conferencing on the proposal to create a “drone wall” along the eastern EU border, September 22, the European Commission spokesman, Thomas Requenier, for the Ukrainian publication.

At the meeting scheduled on Friday, September 26, convened by the European Commissioner for Defense and Space, Andrius Kubilius, representatives from seven EU Member States – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria – together with Ukraine will attend.

Hungary and Slovakia, the only countries in the EU neighboring with Ukraine that were excluded from these initial discussions, have maintained close relations with Moscow since the beginning of its large-scale invasion and have frequently opposed EU actions against Russia, notes The Kyiv Independent.

According to Reganier, the meeting will focus on evaluating the capacities and needs of the participating countries, in order to determine the following steps “in close cooperation with Ukraine and other Member States” of the Community Bloc.

Reign said that the format could be extended in the future.

The discussions follow several incidents that involved Russian drones, including violations of the Romanian airspace and unanswered air vehicles (UAVs) over Poland, incursions that have accentuated security for the EU Flank.

In response to the incursion of the approximately 20 drones on its territory, Poland activated Article 4 of NATO, and the North Atlantic Alliance launched the mission “Eastern Sentry” (East Sentinel), meant to limit Russia's ability to interfere in the air space of the Alliance.

Within the mission “Eastern Sentry”, the Czech Republic will provide MI-171S helicopters, the United Kingdom will provide Typhoon fighter jets, Denmark will contribute with two F-16 aircraft and a frigate with anti-aircraft fighting capacities, France will contribute with three gust planes, and Germany will provide four Eurofighter planes.

The “drone wall” at the Eastern EU border

Last Thursday, European Commissioner Andrius Kubilius announced that he intends to talk to defense ministers in the European Union on creating a “drone wall” along the Eastern EU border.

Kubilius said some EU member countries had already discussed the idea of ​​a line of defense against drones even before the intrusion of Russian drones into the airspace of Poland, two weeks ago.

Currently, the EU executive wants to put this idea in practice faster.

“We really want to advance the very, very intense preparations to start filling this lacuna, which is very dangerous to us,” said the commission representative, according to Reuters and Agerpres.

He mentioned that he would have a video conferencing with the defense ministers on the EU flank and with a representative of Ukraine.

“I came back from Kiev two days ago and discussed with both the Government and the representatives of the Defense Industry, said the former Lithuanian prime minister, appointed last year in the post, newly established, by European Commissioner for Defense and Space.

Kubilius stated that, following the preliminary discussions, it considers that the project is a mix of sensors and different weapons and systems that would neutralize the drones coming from outside the EU.

He said that it is premature to estimate the cost of such a system or the duration of it, although some analysts believe that this could be at most 12 months.

On September 10, Poland has mobilized its own air defense and NATO systems to bring about 20 drones in its airspace, after a Russian air attack on Ukraine.