#air-defence

#air-defence

EU commissioners are meeting today for a security college discussion on defence and security issues, where they will be joined by the secretary general of Nato, Mark Rutte. Their meeting comes amid growing concerns about drones appearing in European airspace, causing continuing disruption in parts of the Nordics. It remains unconfirmed who or what is behind them, but still prompted a strong reaction in the region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking to a security forum in Warsaw, said his country was offering to Poland and all our partners to build a joint, truly reliable shield against Russian aerial threats, drawing on Ukraine's experience. He said his country's military can counter all types of Russian drones and missiles and argued that if Russia loses the ability to strike in the skies, it will be unable to continue the war.

It's one of the reasons why we're significantly increasing our Defence Forces capabilities. We should never fool ourselves or convince ourselves that Ireland is immune from such attack," he said, adding that it is important the government invests in radar capability. "I like to think of it as a bit of a burglar alarm type of system that gives us a greater understanding and warning as to what's happening in our skies and that's why I think it's a really sensible and a prudent time to invest in radar.

Ukraine says it will continue targeting Russian infrastructure delivering troops, fuel and ammunition to the front lines. Russia and Ukraine have been engaging in major aerial battles, targeting energy and transportation infrastructure, as Moscow presses its fierce ground assault in the Ukrainian east in the war's fourth year and tests a type of hypersonic weapon. Russia's Ministry of Defence announced on Sunday that its air defences shot down 361 drones, four guided aerial bombs, and rockets from a US-made high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) overnight.

Overnight two drones entered Polish airspace, they were not shot down as the posed no danger, the Armed Forces Operational Commander Maciej Klisz said on Thursday. Poland's General Staff Chief Wieslaw Kukula said the drones then left Polish airspace and caused no damage. Overnight Russia launched another deadly attack in western and central Ukraine which saw the two drones enter Poland's territory.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for secondary sanctions aimed at disrupting Russia's war in Ukraine after holding the 25th Franco-German Council of Ministers, with US President Donald Trump's diplomatic push yet to bring the three-and-a-half-year war to an end. The leaders of Europe's two biggest economies on Friday agreed to accelerate measures targeting Russia's war machine, including companies from third countries that support Russia's war, according to a joint statement after the meeting in the southern French port city of Toulon.