FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Putin's advantage lies in the fact that he is the sole decision-maker...
The gathering of European leaders in a capital where the airport was recently closed due to the appearance of unidentified drones is enough to make security officials tremble. To help Denmark secure its airspace, France has sent an anti-drone helicopter and a jamming system, as have the United Kingdom and Germany. France has also seized a Russian cargo ship from which the drones may have been sent.
However, the “intruders” in Copenhagen turned out to be just small, commercially available drones, not the Russian Shahed or Geran models, which are the size of small planes, like those that entered the airspace of Poland and Romania.
Such is the climate in which the 27 EU heads of state and government have been meeting since Wednesday, and will be joined on Thursday by the rest of the continent's 47-member European Political Community, including the United Kingdom and Ukraine. The main item on the agenda is Russian President Vladimir Putin, the ever-threatening neighbor.
-Just the beginning
Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen set the tone on Wednesday when she denounced Russia’s “hybrid warfare,” the use of unconventional means such as drone strikes, cyberattacks, sabotage and disinformation. She said it was the most dangerous situation Europe has faced since World War II. “This is just the beginning,” she warned, urging her European colleagues to be better prepared.
The fact that this call to action comes from Denmark is significant. Copenhagen has traditionally stayed away from defense issues within the EU and even had its position written into the treaties. Denmark has come a long way since the invasion of Ukraine.
Its push for greater defense integration has another motive: Donald Trump's hostility earlier this year, when the US president demanded that Denmark hand over Greenland, a territory linked to Copenhagen. The episode came as a severe shock to one of NATO's most loyal members.
The debate over drones in Europe
The issue of drones is on everyone's mind. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has proposed a "drone wall" in Eastern Europe, consisting of sensors and defense systems along the long border shared with Russia and Belarus.
But experts warn against building a “Maginot Line” against drones, arguing that such defenses would be of questionable effectiveness over such a wide area. Even the world’s most advanced system, Israel’s Iron Dome, cannot catch everything and operates over a much smaller territory.
Putin's advantage lies in the fact that he is the sole decision-maker.
Therefore, Europe must find the right balance: avoiding overreacting to interventions that are largely psychological, aimed at spreading panic and weakening public support for Ukraine, while not falling into passivity, which would be dangerous in the midst of an escalating confrontation with a Russia that is failing to achieve its objectives.
Putin’s advantage lies in the fact that he is the sole decision-maker, while the EU27 often finds it difficult to reach an agreement, especially because some members remain close allies of Moscow. This is the price of an alliance of democracies, and an alliance that Putin is able to exploit, turning their contradictions and weaknesses to his advantage. / Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “Politico”
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