Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
US special envoy Keith Kellogg has said that Russian president Vladimir Putin “probably, in his heart of hearts, realises he can’t win” the war against Ukraine, as he appeared to signal his backing for strong response from Nato partners in case of future Russian incursion into their airspace (13:41).
Kellogg told a conference in Poland that the US focus was to “stop the largest land war in Europe since the second world war,” stressing that losses have far exceeded any other major recent conflicts (10:16).
One person has been killed and at least 20 injured after a Russian drone attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, just hours after Kellogg’s comments (17:53).
Poland has arrested a Ukrainian man sought by a German warrant for his alleged involvement in the 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, prosecutors said (12:07, 15:17)
Meanwhile,
Copenhagen residents have been warned of a “massive invasion of police officers” as the Danish capital prepares to host two back-to-back European summits amid rising tensions after more than a week of drone incursions and accusations of hybrid attacks and sabotage (11:59).
A number of countries, including France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, the UK, Ukraine and the US, have offered their support to help increase the capital’s security during the summits (11:27, 13:44, 15:46, 16:58, 17:43).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
One dead, at least 20 injured in Russian drone attack on Ukraine
in Kyiv
One person has been killed and at least 20 injured after a Russian drone attack on Tuesday afternoon in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Serhii Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, said there was extensive damage after a Shahed drone plunged into a downtown area. An office building and a car caught fire. An apartment block, dormitory and cultural institution were damaged, he said, together with many vehicles.
Video footage posted on Telegram showed paramedics at the scene treated a blood-covered man lying on the pavement, against a backdrop of flames and smoke.
Lysak described the strike as a “cynical enemy attack on peaceful residents”. It happened “in the middle of the day, when children and people were at work”, he said.
The governor called for more sanctions on Russia and for allies in Europe to help Ukraine “build reliable protection against Russian drones and missiles”.
“Only joint and strong action can defeat these terrorists. Russia must be responsible for what it is doing,” he wrote on social media.
Ukraine joins allies in helping Denmark in 'exercises' against drones
Ukraine has also sent a team of anti-drone warfare specialists to Denmark “for exercises”, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Copenhagen prepares to host European leaders amid a spate of alleged Russian airspace violations in Europe.
“Our group of specialists has begun deploying a mission in Denmark to share Ukraine’s experience in countering drones,” Zelensky said in a post on social media, adding the team would participate in joint exercises with allies.
“Ukraine’s experience is the most relevant in Europe today,” he said.
Separately, Poland will also send its military experts, the country’s prime minister Donald Tusk said.
“We accepted with satisfaction the Danish government’s request for Polish soldiers to help secure tomorrow’s and the day after tomorrow’s European summit,” Tusk said.
Poland investigates 'object resembling drone' found in corn fields
Polish authorities are investigating a “object resembling a drone” found in corn fields near Płośnica in northern Poland, which is believed to a part of the 20 or so Russian drones that entered Polish airspace on 10 September.
The wreckage was found by a local farmer, police confirmed. The public prosectutor’s office is leading the investigation.
Updated
US sending anti-drone system to Denmark for EU summit
The United States is joining Finland (13:44, 14:46) in sending anti-drone capabilities to Denmark as it hosts an EU summit this week, the Danish defence ministry said, after drones appeared over the Nordic country causing several airport closures, AFP reported.
“We are pleased and grateful that the USA also supports Denmark with anti-drone capabilities in connection with the upcoming summit,” the defence ministry said in a post to X.
Copenhagen is to host an EU summit on Wednesday and Thursday.
Men in wet clothes claiming to be Camino pilgrims arrested over alleged ‘narco-sub’ plot
in Madrid
Police in Spain have arrested three men thought to have piloted a “narco-submarine” carrying more than 3.6 tonnes of cocaine from South America to the north-western region of Galicia, after the trio’s wet clothes and claims to be pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago raised suspicions.
The investigation, which has led to a total of 14 arrests, began in August after Policía Nacional officers, working with the US Drug Enforcement Agency, detected an alleged drug-smuggling gang based in the Galician town of Outes that was said to be concealing its activities by posing as a company selling and repairing nautical equipment.
On 13 September, the gang’s high-powered boats were spotted heading out of the nearby port of O Freixo, prompting police to scramble teams to intercept the boats when they came back, allegedly loaded with drugs brought to the coast in the semi-submersible.
As soon as the boats returned and the gang began loading bales of cocaine into two trailers, officers pounced, they said. A tonne of the drug was recovered after one of the trailers overturned during a high-speed chase, and the remainder of the seizure was discovered the following day, hidden under a tarpaulin on a nearby beach, police said.
The alleged crew of the sub – a Colombian man and two Ecuadorians – were later arrested “after trying to evade officers by fleeing in a taxi in wet clothes, pretending to be pilgrims”, according to a police statement. Their soaking and suspicious appearance caught the attention of the taxi driver and they were arrested by local police, who found a wetsuit in one of their rucksacks.
The sub itself is thought to have wrecked or been scuttled a few miles off the coast of Galicia.
As well as seizing 3.65 tonnes of cocaine and arresting the 14 people on suspicion of drug-trafficking and belonging to a criminal organisation, the Policía Nacional has confiscated €54,680 (£47,700), two boats, five cars and a trailer.
Finland deploys a detachment 'capable of identifying and countering drones' to Denmark
Nordic correspondent
The Finnish ministry of defence said they are deploying a detachment “capable of identifying and countering drones” to Denmark to assist with security during the summits this week in Copenhagen (13:44).
The personnel and equipment they are sending will be placed under the command and control of Danish authorities.
A spokesperson told the Guardian:
“The decision is a response to Denmark’s request to Finland to participate in safeguarding the integrity of the Danish airspace and in countering drones during the international meetings taking place in Copenhagen.
Finland will deploy to Denmark a detachment capable of identifying and countering drones.
The Finnish detachment will be placed under the command and control of Denmark, and the Danish authorities will assume the overall command of the operation.
We are not able to give more details about the systems.”
Updated
Ukrainian detained in Poland over 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions
We are getting more detail on the arrest of a Ukrainian man allegedly involved in causing undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany (12:07).
The man, named as Volodymyr Z, was detained in Pruszków, central Poland, according to Polish radio station RMF FM, which first reported his arrest. He has been transferred to the district prosecutor’s office in Warsaw.
The man, whose full name was not released due to privacy rules, had been detained on a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities, said Piotr Antoni Skiba, a spokesperson for the office.
A spokesperson for Germany’s federal prosecutor did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
Another Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy last month in connection with the explosions on the undersea pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Tymoteusz Paprocki, Volodymyr Z’s lawyer, told RMF FM:
“Taking into consideration the full-scale war in Ukraine and the fact that Nord Stream is owned by the Russian company Gazprom, which finances these activities, the defence currently does not see any possibility of pressing charges against anyone who participated in these events.”
The lawyer said it was not certain whether his client had been involved in the sabotage and he was awaiting official information about the intentions of the German justice system in pressing charges. The defence would fight extradition, the lawyer said.
Undersea explosions on 26 September 2022 damaged pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The damage added to tensions over the war in Ukraine as European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour
According to RMF FM, German authorities say the man is a diving instructor and in September 2022 sailed to the Baltic Sea on a yacht, from which he dived underwater and placed the explosive on the pipeline.
'We are at war,' former Dutch chief of Nato military committee warns
Adm Rob Bauer, former chair of the Nato military committee from the Netherlands, isused a stark warning on Europe’s security as he warns:
“A lot of people talk about the frontline states, and that’s basically eastern Europe, but we have to get away from that, because in modern warfare, there’s a lot of things where there is actually no front any more.
So the people in Portugal and the people in Spain and Italy, the Netherlands, UK, all the nations that are a little bit further away from the eastern front should actually understand that there is no frontline with cyber, with hypersonic missiles, with space, in the information domain.
We are at war when it comes to cyber. We are at war in the information domain. We are.
And it doesn’t mean there’s tanks in the streets of London or tanks in the streets of The Hague or in Rome or in Lisbon, but we are at war.”
Updated
'We have to help Ukraine ... make Crimea unviable' to hit Putin's ego, UK's Wallace says
Asked what Ukraine and its allies could do to accelerate the resolution of the war in Ukraine, Wallace says:
“I think what we have to remember is what motivates Putin. Putin is in love with the idea of dominating Ukraine, taking Ukraine, ‘Crimea is Russia’ … If you read his speeches of 2014 he compares Crimea to the Holy Mount.
So we have to help Ukraine have the long range capabilities to make Crimea unviable. We need to choke the life out of Crimea. And I think if Putin will realise he’s got something to lose, it is not inhabitable or not possible for it to function, and that bridge, we need Tauruses in from Germany, we need to smash the Kerch Bridge, because that’s a statue to Putin’s ego, and I think if we do that Putin will suddenly realise he’s got something to lose.”
UK’s Wallace also makes a powerful point on defence spending, as he warns that “very few countries actually right now spending more money on defence despite all the words.”
“There’s Germany, there’s Poland, there’s the Baltics and the Scandinavia, right? Britain and France and Italy and Spain, we’re not really going to spend any real new money for another three, four years; not towards the end of our electoral cycle.”
He says there is a lot of accounting to show higher spending figures, but “this is total nonsense in a way, we kid ourselves – not kidding the enemey, not kidding anyone else.”
“I just already hear those little violins in the finance ministries, hoping, praying that there’s this peace deal at any cost, so that they can get back to normal and do what they’ve been doing to defence budgets across Europe for 30-40, years, which is corporate raiding our budgets to fund other social budgets.”
He ends on a strong note:
“And for those of us in the room who believe it’s important, that Russia isn’t going to go away anytime soon, and [it poses] the challenge to our values, we should be campaigning always, no matter what the colour of the government is, to make sure that they spend what’s appropriate.”
Ukraine aid is nothing else than 'Russia tax' for allowing Moscow to get out of control, Icelandic diplomat says
Thordis Kolbrun R. Gylfadottir, former Icelandic foreign minister and current Special Envoy of the Secretary General on the Situation of Children of Ukraine at the Council of Europe, is also speaking on the same panel.
On Russia, she says:
“When we talk about the support for Ukraine, I would like to say that we should maybe just [not] talk as much about support for Ukraine and just call it what it is. It is a Russia tax.
Russia has put a tax on Europe, and we just have to pay for it. If Russia wasn’t out of control, we would not have to be doing what we’re doing. So maybe that’s one of the honest, honest conversations that we have with our publics.
It’s not only about doing what is right and supporting Ukraine, [because] Ukraine is in need: it’s a Russia tax. It’s because of their behaviour that we have to pay that tax.”
Wallace also makes an interesting point about the challenge faced by politicians, as they have to level with the public about the threats their countries face or could face, and associated costs.
“We don’t tell them all the time what’s going on, partly to protect intelligence, but also we shield them, and it also allows the politicians of the day to not have to make difficult decisions,” he says.
Here is his argument in full:
“But actually, if the public knew what many of our statuses or readiness levels were, or our ammunition stocks, the parliaments and the public would be outraged.
So it’s very convenient that everything is classified in the national security space.
If we don’t tell you that, let’s say the Russians have hacked ministry a or ministry B … you won’t demand I do something about it, and also you won’t demand that I might have to cut something else in public policy that will make me unpopular, and therefore, spend it on our own national security, and I think that is something we have to level with the public about.”
'Look at world not as we wish it to be, but how it is,' UK's former defence secretary tells of his lessons from Russian invasion on Ukraine
Former UK defence minister Ben Wallace is now speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum, discussing his lessons from leading the UK’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He says “the first lesson is we must look at the world not as we wish it to be, but in the way it is.”
He also calls out the initial reactions in some countries, as he says:
“I remember going to Mariupol when I was the government security minister, not long after the Salisbury poisoning, … I remember, when it came to even early military aid to Ukraine, there was a country in Europe that wouldn’t even allow diggers to be exported to Ukraine – diggers, not guns, not missiles, but diggers! – just because that could have been potentially provocative to President Putin.”
He says the other challenge is to “to change a sort of mindset that I think has become frighteningly endemic in our foreign ministries around Europe, which is, we look at our adversaries as if they are the same as us.”
“I remember one senior member of an intelligence service in Europe saying to me that Putin wouldn’t invade because it wouldn’t be logical. Well, no, it’s not logical by any benchmark. What Putin has done is illogical, disastrous within country, and has killed millions of people. But these people aren’t always logical.”
He continues:
“They’re not us. They don’t have democracies in the same way, they don’t have checks and balances that we have. And we have lost that skill, that deep skill that we might have had for the last, you know, hundreds of years ago or 50 years ago, to recognise and read your adversary. Read the room. …
So then we had to move to this stage of accepting that Putin was not, you know, what we might think he is, and then doing something about it. And there were a lot of people in this country and in the east of Europe who were warning us for many years, and people were not listening.”
Finland to help Denmark raise its defences ahead of two European summits, president Stubb says
Nordic correspondent
Finland’s president has pledged to help to defend Denmark as Copenhagen prepares to host two European summits this week amid ongoing drone incursions.
Alexander Stubb said on Tuesday that Finland had deployed an anti-drone system to Denmark and that the Finnish Border Guard would provide support.
Support provided by Finland, Sweden and Norway to Denmark was, he said, “an excellent example of the type of concrete Nordic cooperation we need today.”
Stubb wrote on X:
“Finland stands fully behind Denmark in its efforts to secure the airspace and countering hybrid activities of the kind we have seen in the last days and weeks.
To make this support concrete, Finland has today decided to deploy a Counter-UAS contingent to Denmark. The Finnish Border Guard will also support with its own capabilities.
I see this as an excellent example of the type of concrete Nordic cooperation we need today. Going forward, we’ll keep aligning our approaches to countering hybrid threats and pushing the capability development in Europe.”
Putin 'in his heart of hearts realises he can't win this,' US Kellogg says
US special envoy Keith Kellogg is back on stage at the Warsaw Security Forum.
Speaking about Ukraine, he says that Russia was “not winning this war.”
“I think probably in his heart of hearts he realises he can’t win this. This is an unwinnable fight for him, long-term. It’s not going to happen.”
Asked about the recent incidents involving Russia in Europe, he appears to signal his support for the idea of shooting Russian drones or jets crossing into Nato airspace.
He says:
“The way you respond to something like this, from a military background, I would say sometimes you raise what is called the risk level to do it.
I will give you a good example. … A few years ago, 2015, the Russians had a Russian fighter invade Turkish airspace. What did the Turks do? They shot it down.
Okay, that will get you attention really fast, won’t it?
Now, that’s what I mean about raising your risk level. I know it’s the dangerous thing to do. I’ve got it. I understand that. But sometimes you have to ask yourselves, where do you go? …
Look, this is serious business. For those of you sitting in uniform in this room, you know that.”
He specifically references Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski’s speech at the UN security council, in which he warned Russia that Poland would shoot any jets down in the future.
“– So the Russians have been warned?
– I think they have.”
Pressed about how to get to a trilateral meeting between Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump, Kellogg says “the way you reach [it], sort of like what Ukraine is doing right now, is you make this almost cost prohibitive.”
He says that Ukraine is making progress on that target by “hitting the refineries, which cut 20% of their oil production down.”
“We are working on people not buying … on secondary sanctions … on buying their oil. Unfortunately, some in Europe are still buying it.”
He argued that Russia “is a petrostate, and if you take away the petrodollars, they have got an enormous problem.”
“I think the calculus is on Putin, … and basically the pain level he is willing to accept,” he says, pointing to Russia’s growing frontline problems with the Russian army “taking tanks out of museums to bring into the frontlines.”
“I think we don’t need to draw any more red lines. He’s got the problem, not the West, and he’s got to make that call, not the West. The West is going to be it’s aligned very, very well, and I have great confidence in it.”
‘His drug is power’: Lukashenko reaches out to the west
If you are keen to understand the dynamics between the US and Belarus a bit better (10:08), here’s a brilliant story from our own Pjotr Sauer, who recently visited Minsk.
Since Trump took office, Lukashenko, an authoritarian strongman who has ruled Belarus since 1994, has been edging out of the diplomatic freeze, cautiously probing for space beyond Moscow, which sees Belarus as both its closest ally and a vital buffer.
Sensing a political opening with the new Trump administration, Lukashenko has regularly met US officials and even held a call with the US president, who has floated the idea of a direct meeting.
Some in Washington see Lukashenko as a potential interlocutor with Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, has privately said he places a high value on Lukashenko’s insights into the Russian leader, according to a source familiar with the talks.
European diplomatic sources have meanwhile said there are tentative discussions in Brussels over whether the EU’s policy of isolating Belarus remains effective, and if offering Lukashenko a way out of Moscow’s shadow should be considered. Belarus has also signalled openness to talks, the two sources said.
Poland detains Ukrainian man wanted over alleged involvement in Nord Stream explosions - report
A Ukrainian man wanted by Germany over his alleged involvement in the Nord Stream explosion has been detained in Poland, RMF FM radio just reported.
The man, a scuba diving instructor known only as Volodymyr Z, was detained in Pruszków, just outside the Polish capital, Warsaw, the broadcaster said.
Updated
Copenhagen residents to see 'massive invasion of police officers' as capital prepares for two major summits after drone sightings
Nordic correspondent
Copenhagen residents have been warned of a “massive invasion of police officers” as the Danish capital prepares to host two back-to-back European summits amid rising tensions after more than a week of drone incursions and accusations of hybrid attacks and sabotage.
Around 10,000 hotel rooms are understood to have been booked for police officers coming from outside Copenhagen for the events, including from Sweden and Norway.
Peter Dahl, head of emergency preparedness at the Copenhagen Police, told DR:
“Copenhageners will experience a massive invasion of police officers in the coming days. We will really be noticeable in the street scene.”
The numerous potential threats are “incredibly complex”, he said, with risks of demonstrations, terrorism and a “high” threat of espionage and sabotage.
“With up to 60 heads of state and government and with the security situation we have in the world today, it is an enormous task.”
There would also be, he added, a widespread use of drones and as he suggested that there would be officers positioned on roofs.
On Wednesday, the heads of state and government from 27 EU countries will meet at Christianborg Palace during the daytime before attending an event with the King and Queen at Amalienborg Palace.
On Thursday, Copenhagen will host a European Political Community event which will also include representatives of Nato, the EU, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Domestic and international tensions have increased after several drone incursions across Denmark and the Nordics in recent days, including at airports and military sites.
The last time police faced an operation of this scale was during the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.
Updated
UK, France, Germany, Sweden to help Denmark increase security after drone incursions
Defence and security editor
Unidentified drones have disrupted Danish airspace on several occasions in the past week, and Danish forces have so far failed to shoot down any of them, which would allow an examination of the wreckage.
The UK, France, Germany and Sweden said they would help Denmark increase its security during two European summits in Copenhagen this week.
The capital is due to host EU leaders on Wednesday and the wider 47-member European Political Community on Thursday.
Britain has also sent a counter-drone system to Denmark, defence secretary John Healey said at a fringe event the UK Labour party conference.
Germany said it would send 40 soldiers to Denmark to help detect, identify and counter drones, while France will deploy a military helicopter plus another 35 troops. Sweden said it would sent a counter-drone system plus extra radars, as well as additional police to enhance security on the ground.
Updated
Former aide to German AfD lawmaker jailed for spying for China
In other news, a former aide to German far-right lawmaker Maximilian Krah in the European parliament was jailed for four years and nine months on Tuesday on charges of spying for China, AFP reported.
The court in Dresden found that Jian Guo was guilty of acting as an agent for a Chinese intelligence service while working for Krah, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
US focus is to 'stop the largest land war in Europe since second world war,' Kellogg says
Closing the panel, US envoy Kellogg spelled out the US position on Ukraine, as he said:
“The biggest thing we want to do is stop the largest land war in Europe since the second world war.
And this is a war of industrial strength with over hundreds - not one thousand or two thousand, we’re talking hundreds, plural, of thousands – of killed in action there.
In Afghanistan, Russians came out after losing 18,000; we left Vietnam after losing 65,000. We’re now talking of the level of dead and wounded on both sides [that] have eclipsed a million.
Stunning. And so I think this war needs to come to an end to some way.”
US deal with Belarus was primarily on 'ensuring lines of communication' to Putin, not freeing prisoners, Kellogg says
US envoy Kellogg also offered a bit of tasty colour on the US relationship with Belarus, after a deal earlier this month to release some political prisoners in exchange for loosening some of sanctions on Minsk.
He stressed that the US focus on Lukashenko was because “we know he talks to President Putin a lot.” “We’re not sure what he says, but we know that he talks to him,” he says.
“But what we did, we established a relationship to ensure the lines of communication were open so we could make sure all of our messaging was being passed to President Putin. That was the reason we did it; we weren’t going in there initially to get political prisoners out,” he said.
Kellogg stressed that the success in releasing some political prisoners was a positive side to that, but “the overall objective of that was not to free political prisoners – the overall objective was [to] find a resolution to the best way we can to the war between Ukraine and Russia.”
He said the US focus was on making sure “the messages were being sent to Vladimir Putin are consistent with the messages that have gone to other circles”.
“I don’t care if it’s Kirill Dmitriev, I don’t care if it’s [Yuri] Ushakov; I don’t care if it’s Lukashenko. The fact is making sure those messages come across,” he said.
He also said that US is not “naive” about Lukashenko’s rule, and “we know if he releases one [prisoner], he probably picks up two more”.
Kellogg also added that the deal with Belarus was to help the state-owned airline Belavia fix their aircraft as “the preferred option is that their aeroplanes don’t fall out of the skies,” but to make it clear they must not use them for “nefarious purposes” and flying migrants into Europe. “That’s the bottom line,” he said.
Updated
'No decision' made on reviewing US training posture in Baltics, CEE, Latvian foreign minister says
Speaking at the same event, the Latvian foreign minister, Baiba Braže, was also asked about reported US plans to review its support for training and US military presence in central and eastern Europe.
But she insisted that “for now, no decisions have been made on cutting something or eliminating something; quite the opposite”.
“We have heard some good things from Washington and that’s the way we intend to continue,” she said, stressing the region’s support for President Trump “in his quest for peace in Ukraine.”
Asked to be more specific about signals she heard from Washington, she said:
“They will be public when they become public.”
The senior Polish presidential aide Marcin Przydacz agreed with her, saying Poland “does not have any negative signals” from the US.
“We’ve heard public statements [from] President Trump that American troops will stay in Poland, and with a bit of strategic messaging towards Moscow, I think, President Trump also said there is a chance for further deployment of American troops.
We don’t know whether it will happen or not. It is also a job for us, for Polish diplomacy, to work on that.”
Updated
The US envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has distanced himself from his earlier comments on the US plans to respond to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for US Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles to conduct strikes inside Russia.
Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum, Kellogg stressed he was merely talking about public statements, and had no inside knowledge of the process or the final decision.
But he stressed the significance of Tomahawks, saying it’s a “very advanced missile system” and if it was authorised to be used, it would “change the dynamics of any military conflict” as it adds another layer of “uncertainty” because of its capabilities.
Updated
Morning opening: All eyes on European security
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. Denmark, which will host two major European summits this week, moved to immediately strengthen its air defences to safeguard the meetings.
Earlier this month, a number of central and eastern European countries also reported Russian violations of their airspace, most notably when over 20 drones crossed into Poland, and three MiG fighter jets violated Estonian airspace.
Speaking in Brussels in the last few minutes, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said “Europe must deliver a strong and united response to Russia’s drone incursions at our borders,” stressing the need to press ahead with building a “drone wall” to increase security.
Nato’s Rutte agreed with the urgency, stressing that while the alliance is still assessing who – or what – is behind the drone incursions in Denmark, “when it comes to Poland and Estonia, it is clear that it is the Russians.”
“Still, we are assessing whether it is intentional or not. But even if it is not intentional, it is reckless and it is unacceptable.”
Von der Leyen also spoke about Ukraine, hailing its resilience and stressing it has ceded “virtually no territory this year”, despite continuing conflict. She said the EU’s sanctions “are working” and the bloc will want to push further with the upcoming, 19th package of measures against Moscow.
The EU has agreed with Ukraine that “a total of €2bn will be spent on drones,” which “allows Ukraine to scale up and to use its full capacity.” Crucially, von der Leyen indicated the EU will want to push ahead with what it calls “reparation loans,” based on the frozen Russian assets – a part of which will be used to fund EU defence industry, too.
She offered a bit more detail on how the scheme is supposed to work, saying:
“The loan would not be disbursed in one go, but in tranches and with conditions attached. And we will strengthen our own defence industry by ensuring that part of the loan is used for procurement in Europe and with Europe.
Importantly, there is no seizing of the assets. Ukraine has to repay the loan, if Russia is paying reparations. The perpetrator must be held responsible.”
We are expecting more security discussions to come today, including those happening during the second day of the Warsaw Security Forum, where we are going to hear from ministers and US special envoy Keith Kellogg, among others.
I will bring you all the latest here.
It’s Tuesday, 30 September 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
