“We are moving beyond the realms of hypothetical conflict”, the European Union warned on Monday as it accused Moscow of “gambling with war”.
European Union foreign affairs boss and bloc vice president Kaja Kallas visited Kyiv on Monday for talks on military and economic support, and in a speech delivered alongside her Ukrainian counterpart said the continent faces an “extraordinary” wave of attacks from Russia.
Speaking of the recent rise in Russian aircraft, including drones and fighter jets, entering NATO’s European airspace, Kallas accused Moscow of risking open warfare. She said:
Every time a Russian drone or plane violates our airspace, there is a risk of escalation, unintended or not. Russia is gambling with war, and we are moving beyond the realms of hypothetical conflict.
Europe has to respond to these provocations by strengthening its defence to boost deterrence, she said. Looking particularly at Europe’s feared vulnerability to the sort of intense drone warfare that has characterised the war against Ukraine to date, Kallas said the bloc would be taking lessons from Kyiv.
Europe needs sensors to be able to detect drones, she said — recent mystery drones appearing at Western European airports have gone untracked to and from source, making determining their origin impossible — and then anti-drone systems to take them down.
Learning from the Ukrainian experience, where a grossly asymmetric warfare has emerged of drones costing a few tens of thousands of dollars and deployed in great numbers are being shot down with sophisticated and expensive interceptor missiles, Kallas said new approaches are needed. She remarked this would mean “lesser means”, likely to become laser point-defence and specialised interceptor kamikaze drones.
On the war more broadly, Kallas emphasised the European Union’s longstanding total victory posture, hanging it on President Trump’s recent goading of Moscow by invoking Kyiv retaking all of its territory and even rolling on into Russia. She also restated the EU’s position that all war crimes committed in Ukraine are ultimately Russia’s responsibility, as it was the initial aggressor, and that any crimes that follow wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Looking forward, the top diplomat said “Russia has dashed any hope of quick peace, so we are planning for the long haul.”
In questions following the address, Kallas was led to briefly remark on comments from Washington on the prospect of the United States being willing to release for sale Tomahawk missiles, which NATO member states could buy and then donate to Ukraine. Kallas said the European Union would welcome the cruise missiles, which have the range to strike Moscow and Russia’s western military bases, becoming available.
Overnight, U.S. President Donald Trump commented on the Tomahawk question, noting that he saw the potency of the missiles as a considerable escalation of the conflict. Issuing a thinly-veiled ultimatum to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Trump expressed a hypothetical conversation he could have where he presented Moscow with a choice between ending the war and having Tomahawk missiles unleashed on them by Kyiv.
As reported:
Trump said: “That’s a step up… I might have to speak to Russia to be honest with you, about Tomahawks, do they want Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so.
“I might speak to Russia about that in all fairness, I said that to Zelensky. Because Tomahawks are a new step of aggression, you understand that.”
Laying out the situation to President Putin, through the device of a metaphorical future telephone conversation with the Russian leader, President Trump continued: “I might say ‘look, if this war is not going to get settled I’m going to send them Tomahawks’. I might say that.
“The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, a very offensive weapon, and honestly Russia does not need that. I might tell them ‘if the war is not settled, that we may very well, we may not, but we may do it’. But I think it’s appropriate to bring that up. I want to see the war settled.”
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