By Andrew Gray
European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius speaks during a press conference, on the day of Weimar Triangle meeting on Ukraine at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Madrid, Spain, March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Juan Medina/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (Reuters) – European Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said on Thursday he plans to convene talks with defence ministers next week on creating a “drone wall” along the EU’s eastern border – a project infused with urgency by a Russian drone incursion into Poland.
Kubilius told Reuters that some European Union countries had already been discussing the idea of a line of defence against drones before last week’s incursion and the EU’s executive arm now wanted to move quickly to turn the concept into reality.
Analysts and officials said the incursion exposed gaps in Europe’s and NATO’s ability to protect against drones, although Polish and NATO forces shot down several of them.
“We want really to move ahead with very, very intensive and effective preparations to start to fill this gap, which is really very dangerous for us… as quickly as we can do it,” Kubilius said in a telephone interview.
Kubilius said he would hold a video conference on the project with Eastern European defence ministers and a representative from Ukraine, which could share lessons from the war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion.
“I just came back from Kyiv two days ago and we were talking both with the government and also with industry,” said Kubilius, a former prime minister of Lithuania who was appointed the EU’s first-ever defence commissioner last year.
“They’re keen to share their experience and know-how.”
Kubilius said discussions were still at an initial stage but he envisioned the project as a mix of sensors and different weapons and jamming systems that would detect and neutralise incoming drones.
He said it was too early to estimate the cost of such a system or how long it would take to set up, although he said some public estimates by analysts suggested it could be done within a year.
Separately, Ukraine’s defence minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday that Ukrainian troops and engineers will train their Polish counterparts in a joint group on countering drones.
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time of last week’s drone incursions and that it had not intended to hit any targets in Poland. Warsaw has rejected that explanation, saying the incursion was a deliberate attack.
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Andrew Gray is Reuters’ European Affairs Editor. Based in Brussels, he covers NATO and the European Union and leads a pan-European team of reporters focused on diplomacy, defence and security. A journalist for almost 30 years, he has previously been based in the UK, Germany, Geneva, the Balkans, West Africa and Washington, where he reported on the Pentagon. He covered the Iraq war in 2003 and contributed a chapter to a Reuters book on the conflict. He has also worked at Politico Europe as a senior editor and podcast host, served as the main editor for a fellowship programme for journalists from the Balkans, and contributed to the BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent radio show.
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