ReportWire

Tag: NATO

  • Why does Trump want Greenland to be part of the U.S.?

    [ad_1]

    Why does the United States want control of Greenland? President Trump has made it clear that he thinks the U.S. needs to control the Arctic island to ensure the security of America and and its NATO allies, a point those allies — and Greenland — vehemently disagree with.

    But there’s more at play here, including a valuable shipping route and access to mineral resources.

    Here’s what interests the U.S. about the semi-autonomous Danish territory:

    “It’s so strategic right now” 

    Greenland spans about 836,000 square miles, much of it covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet. It’s home to only around 60,000 people and is a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with its own elected government.

    Getty/iStockphoto


    Its location between the U.S., Russia and Europe makes it strategic for both economic and defense purposes — especially as melting sea ice has opened up new shipping routes through the Arctic. It is also the location of the northernmost U.S. military base.

    Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed the U.S. needs Greenland for national security purposes.

    “It’s so strategic right now,” he told reporters on Sunday, Jan. 4. “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place … We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

    “The Americans have a strong interest in overseeing the activities of foreign countries in Greenland because it’s such a big security asset for foreign states, and due to that, any investment or activity, from the American point of view, may be seen as a security threat,” Frank Sejersen, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, told CBS News earlier this year.

    Control over a new, valuable route for shipping

    Melting sea ice around Greenland has created more opportunity to use the Northern Sea route — allowing shippers to save millions of dollars in fuel by taking a shorter route between Europe and Asia that was long only passable in warmer months.

    A Russian commercial vessel, aided by an icebreaker, first traversed the route in the winter in February 2021.

    northern-sea-route-suez-canal-route.png

    An illustration by the European University at St. Petersburg shows the Northern Sea shipping route, which a Russian tanker traversed for the first time ever in the winter in February 2021, and the southern Suez Canal route.

    European University at St. Petersburg


    Greenland’s underground resources

    Greenland has reserves of oil, natural gas and highly sought after mineral resources.

    Those mineral resources, which include rare earth elements, “have only been lightly explored and developed,” Jose W. Fernandez, the U.S. Department of State’s undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment, said at a Minerals Security Partnership event in Greenland in November 2024.

    Greenland may have significant reserves of up to 31 different minerals, including lithium and graphite, according to a 2023 report assessing the island’s resources. Both minerals are needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles and a wide array of other technologies.

    Currently, lithium production is dominated by Australia, Chile and China, while China produces about 65% of the world’s graphite, the report noted.

    Greenland also has the potential to provide a significant amount of rare earth minerals such as Neodymium, which is used to make the magnets used in electric motors, the 2023 report said. 

    China produces about 70% of rare earth elements, and demand for rare earth minerals continues to grow with technological advances and the rapid spread of consumer devices that require the resources.

    There are, however, significant hurdles to mining in Greenland, including environmental and cost issues.

    Most Greenlanders don’t want to be American

    Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Tuesday that his country wants good relations with the U.S. and did not “think that there might be a takeover of the country overnight, and that is why we are insisting that we want good cooperation.”

    A poll conducted a year ago showed that 85% of Greenlanders did not want to be part of the United States.

    “He can’t just take it like that,” Daniel Rosing, a trainee electrician who said he was proud of being a Greenlander, told CBS News ahead of a visit last year to the island by Vice President JD Vance and his wife.

    Vice President JD Vance Visits US Military Base In Northern Greenland

    Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the U.S. military’s Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, March 28, 2025, with Col. Susannah Meyers, seen on the left.

    Jim Watson/Pool/Getty


    A brief history of Greenland 

    The Kingdom of Denmark began colonizing Greenland in the early 18th century, hundreds of years after Vikings from the same distant land first arrived to set up residency. 

    It was not until World War II that the U.S. established a presence on the island, when then-Danish Ambassador to the U.S., Henrik Kauffmann, refused to surrender to the rule of Denmark’s Nazi occupiers.

    Denmark was liberated from Nazi occupation in 1945, and the European nation carried on as a colonial ruler of Greenland until 1953, when it fully laid out its relations with the island as a semi-autonomous territory.

    The U.S. never left the Pituffik Space Base, which was established during WWII.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • U.S. NATO allies say

    [ad_1]


    European leaders released a joint statement Tuesday, outlining the importance of Arctic security, but stressing that “Greenland belongs to its people,” hours after White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller said it was “the formal position of the U.S. government that Greenland should be part of the U.S.”

    Miller also said, in an interview Monday with CNN, that the United States, “is the power of NATO. For the U.S. to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the U.S.”

    “NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European Allies are stepping up. We and many other Allies have increased our presence, activities and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries,” the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the U.K. and Greenland said in their joint statement on Tuesday.

    “Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the U.N. Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them. The United States is an essential partner in this endeavor, as a NATO ally and through the defense agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States of 1951,” the U.S. allies said.

    “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Donald Trump issues Greenland deadline

    [ad_1]

    President Donald Trump has said the U.S. will revisit its stance on Greenland in the coming weeks.

    Asked if he expected to take action on the territory, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday: “Let’s talk about Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine. We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months. Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”

    He added: “We need Greenland from a national security situation. It’s so strategic.”

    The Republican has long coveted the Arctic island of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory and part of Denmark—a NATO country, like the U.S. The vast, sparsely populated territory is rich in minerals and hosts the U.S. space base of Pituffik, which is key for detecting long-range missiles bound for the U.S. mainland.

    Danish and Greenlandic officials have repeatedly hit back at U.S. overtures toward the territory.

    Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, said on Sunday it “makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland.”

    “The U.S. has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom,” Frederiksen said. “I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have very clearly said that they are not for sale.”

    Trump said in his remarks to reporters the U.S. needs Greenland “from the standpoint of national security and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

    This is a developing story. Updates to follow.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • What are Putin’s Ultimate Demands for Peace in Ukraine?

    [ad_1]

    Indeed, on November 24th, Ukrainian officials announced that, after meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials, in Geneva, they had come up with their own, nineteen-point plan. In the new draft, Zelensky said, “many of the right elements have been taken into account.”

    The next day, Trump announced that Witkoff would travel to Moscow, and Dan Driscoll, the Secretary of the Army, would fly to Kyiv. “There are only a few remaining points of disagreement,” Trump said. But, heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, there are now essentially two proposals: a Witkoff plan and a Rubio plan. One suits Russia, the other Ukraine. The war’s essential logic has again revealed itself: Moscow won’t accept what Kyiv can stomach.

    Throughout Trump’s second term, officials in Kyiv have appeared more willing to make concessions than many observers realize. The country’s situation on the battlefield, while not catastrophic, is unfavorable. Ukraine lacks sufficient numbers of combat-ready infantry, and its drones are not able to fully defend against the Russian onslaught. Russia, though its advances have come at enormous cost to its forces, has achieved an operational momentum that Ukraine has struggled to halt. The situation in the southern front, around Zaporizhzhia, has become as worrying as that in the east, where the battle for the city of Pokrovsk has attracted the most attention. Members of the Ukrainian military are questioning the competency of the top command and the ability of their forces to hold the line. According to Balazs Jarabik, a former European diplomat with extensive connections in Kyiv, security officials have told him that “Armageddon is coming.”

    Meanwhile, a corruption scandal unfolded in Kyiv earlier this month in which several top officials, including a longtime Zelensky confidant with interests in the energy and drone sectors, were implicated in a hundred-million-dollar kickback scheme. NABU, an independent anticorruption body that Zelensky had tried but failed to bring under his authority this summer, released a series of incriminating surveillance tapes. In the videos, a suspect complains that his back hurts from carrying so many bags of cash; another says it’s not worth spending the money to protect electrical substations from Russian attack—an infuriating statement in a winter of rolling blackouts. “The scandal shook the state to the core,” Jarabik said. “Everyone was wondering, Who else is on these tapes?” Zelensky, even if not directly involved, was left politically wounded.

    The country’s fiscal crisis has also become too acute to ignore. According to estimates by the European Commission, over the next two years Ukraine will need more than a hundred and thirty billion euros to fill holes in its budget. With Trump in the White House, that money is not likely coming from the U.S. In theory, the problem could be solved by an E.U. proposal, which would reportedly provide Ukraine with a hundred and forty billion euros from an even larger sum of frozen Russian assets that are being held in Europe. However, that effort has stalled, and the sums may never reach Ukraine; Belgium, the home of Euroclear, one of the continent’s chief securities depositories, is wary of taking on the sole legal responsibility for the maneuver.

    The Kremlin is keenly aware of the pressures that Zelensky and the Ukrainian state are under. If anything, Putin has consistently overestimated this factor. “He thinks for him to get what he wants he just needs to push a bit more,” Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told me. “He will squeeze every last drop. Trump will twist Ukraine’s arm or the country will be weakened to the point that it has no choice.”

    That’s not to say that Russia is entirely without its own reasons to consider a deal. Oil prices are down. U.S. sanctions imposed in October on Rosneft and Lukoil, two of Russia’s largest oil companies, have eaten into the Kremlin’s most important revenue stream—this month, income from oil-and-gas sales was down about a quarter from a year ago. Importers in India and China, the two most important markets for Russian oil, have scaled down or even cancelled their purchases. Meanwhile, Ukraine has stepped up its campaign of drone strikes on refining and processing facilities inside Russia. As for the military effort, enlistment numbers fell to a two-year low this summer. Some Russian regions, facing local budget crunches, have cut the large signing bonuses they were handing out to new recruits.

    [ad_2]

    Joshua Yaffa

    Source link

  • Opinion | Can Trump Deliver Putin?

    [ad_1]

    The hysterics will get hysterical all over again when it turns out peace isn’t nigh.

    [ad_2]

    Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

    Source link

  • Opinion | Suspicious Drones Over Europe

    [ad_1]

    Has the West absorbed the right lessons from Ukraine’s war with Russia? For the unsettling answer, look at what’s buzzing mysteriously in the skies above Europe’s cities. Drones were spotted this month in France, loitering around a gunpowder plant and a train station where tanks are located. Others were seen recently near a Belgian military base, a port, and a nuclear power plant.

    Belgium’s defense minister told the press the drones near military bases were “definitely for spying.” The provenance of other suspicious drones is less clear. Yet whatever their source, they’re a security threat. The Netherlands suspended flights in Eindhoven Saturday after a drone sighting, and similar episodes have unfolded this month at airports in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Denmark.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

    [ad_2]

    The Editorial Board

    Source link

  • NATO ally says “worst suspicions” confirmed after railroad bomb attack

    [ad_1]

    Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the “worst suspicions have been confirmed” and that a bomb had destroyed rail track after “an act of sabotage” along the Warsaw to Lublin route.

    “An explosion of an explosive device destroyed the railway track,” Tusk said, originally in Polish, in a post on X. “Emergency services and the prosecutor’s office are working at the scene. Damage was also found on the same route, closer to Lublin.”

    Poland is a NATO ally. Tusk did not say immediately who Poland suspects is behind the sabotage, but it has accused Russia in previous incidents, which Moscow denied.

    This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • This anti-drone technology is used on the Ukrainian battlefield and in NATO airspace after flyovers

    [ad_1]

    AALBORG, Denmark (AP) — In a warehouse more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from Ukraine’s capital, workers in northern Denmark painstakingly piece together anti-drone devices. Some of the devices will be exported to Kyiv in the hopes of jamming Russian technology on the battlefield, while others will be shipped across Europe in efforts to combat mysterious drone intrusions into NATO’s airspace that have the entire continent on edge.

    Two Danish companies whose business was predominantly defense-related now say they have a surge in new clients seeking to use their technology to protect sites like airports, military installations and critical infrastructure, all of which have been targeted by drone flyovers in recent weeks.

    Weibel Scientific’s radar drone detection technology was deployed ahead of a key EU summit earlier this year to Copenhagen Airport, where unidentified drone sightings closed the airspace for hours in September. Counter-drone firm MyDefence, from its warehouse in northern Denmark, builds handheld, wearable radio frequency devices that sever the connection between a drone and its pilot to neutralize the threat.

    So-called “jamming” is restricted and heavily regulated in the European Union, but widespread on the battlefields of Ukraine and has become so extensive there that Russia and Ukraine have started deploying drones tethered by thin fiber-optic cables that don’t rely on radio frequency signals. Russia also is firing attack drones with extra antenna to foil Ukraine’s jamming efforts.

    A spike in drone incursions

    Drone warfare exploded following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia has bombarded Ukraine with drone and missile attacks, striking railways, power facilities and cities across the country. Ukraine, in response, has launched daring strikes deep inside Russia using domestically produced drones.

    But Europe as a whole is now on high alert after the drone flyovers into NATO’s airspace reached an unprecedented scale in September, prompting European leaders to agree to develop a “drone wall” along their borders to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace. In November, NATO military officials said a new U.S. anti-drone system was deployed to the alliance’s eastern flank.

    Some European officials described the incidents as Moscow testing NATO’s response, which raised questions about how prepared the alliance is against Russia. Key challenges include the ability to detect drones — sometimes mistaken for a bird or plane on radar systems — and take them down cheaply.

    The Kremlin has brushed off allegations that Russia is behind some of the unidentified drone flights in Europe.

    Andreas Graae, assistant professor at the Royal Danish Defense College, said there is a “huge drive” to rapidly deploy counter-drone systems in Europe amid Russia’s aggression.

    “All countries in Europe are struggling to find the right solutions to be prepared for these new drone challenges,” he said. “We don’t have all the things that are needed to actually be good enough to detect drones and have early warning systems.”

    Putting ‘machines before people’

    Founded in 2013, MyDefence makes devices that can be used to protect airports, government buildings and other critical infrastructure, but chief executive Dan Hermansen called the Russia-Ukraine war a “turning point” for his company.

    More than 2,000 units of its wearable “Wingman” detector have been delivered to Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly four years ago.

    “For the past couple of years, we’ve heard in Ukraine that they want to put machines before people” to save lives, Hermansen said.

    MyDefence last year doubled its earnings to roughly $18.7 million compared to 2023.

    Then came the drone flyovers earlier this year. Besides Copenhagen Airport, drones flew over four smaller Danish airports, including two that serve as military bases.

    Hermansen said they were an “eye-opener” for many European countries and prompted a surge of interest in their technology. MyDefence went from the vast majority of its business being defense-related to inquiries from officials representing police forces and critical infrastructure.

    “Seeing suddenly that drone warfare is not just something that happens in Ukraine or on the eastern flank, but basically is something that we need to take care of in a hybrid warfare threat scenario,” he added.

    Radar technology used against drones

    On NATO’s eastern flank, Denmark, Poland and Romania are deploying a new weapons system to defend against drones. The American Merops system, which is small enough to fit in the back of a midsize pickup truck, can identify drones and close in on them using artificial intelligence to navigate when satellite and electronic communications are jammed.

    The aim is to make the border with Russia so well-armed that Moscow’s forces will be deterred from ever contemplating crossing the line from Norway in the north to Turkey in the south, NATO military officials told The Associated Press.

    North of Copenhagen, Weibel Scientific has been making Doppler radar technology since the 1970s. Typically used in tracking radar systems for the aerospace industry, it’s now being applied to drone detection like at Copenhagen Airport.

    The technology can determine the velocity of an object, such as a drone, based on the change in wavelength of a signal being bounced back. Then it’s possible to predict the direction the object is moving, Weibel Scientific chief executive Peter Røpke said.

    “The Ukraine war, and especially how it has evolved over the last couple of years with drone technology, means this type of product is in high demand,” Røpke said.

    Earlier this year, Weibel secured a $76 million deal, which the firm called its “largest order ever.”

    The drone flyovers boosted the demand even higher as discussion around the proposed “drone wall” continued. Røpke said his technology could become a “key component” of any future drone shield.

    ___

    Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Opinion | When Irish Eyes Are Glaring

    [ad_1]

    Tensions with the U.S. will heighten under the new left-wing president.

    [ad_2]

    Robert C. O’Brien

    Source link

  • NATO to receive 2026 International Award of the Peace of Westphalia

    [ad_1]

    The NATO military alliance has been announced as the recipient of the International Award of the Peace of Westphalia in 2026.

    NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is to accept the award on behalf of the trans-Atlantic defence alliance at Münster City Hall, the organizers announced in the western German city on Wednesday.

    The prize’s title relates to two peace treaties signed in 1648 which ended a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.

    Former recipients of the award, which is handed out by the Economic Society for Westphalia and Lippe (WWL) every two years, include former German Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS), Jordan’s King Abdullah II and French President Emmanuel Macron.

    The late Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer received a special award in 2025.

    In times of global uncertainty, NATO creates reliability, promotes partnership and enables peace through stability, said WWL chairman Reinhard Zinkann.

    “Under the leadership of Mark Rutte, it shows that military strength and peacekeeping are not contradictory, but mutually dependent,” Zinkann explained.

    Since taking office in 2024, the Dutchman has made a decisive contribution as a leader to ensuring that the NATO alliance acts in a united and peace-oriented manner, according to the jury.

    In a statement, the jury expressly praised NATO’s long-standing peacekeeping missions, such as in Kosovo, and NATO’s support for Ukraine.

    In response to the announcement, Hendrik Wüst, the premier of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said that the award underlined the importance of the defence alliance.

    “NATO does indispensable work for global security and is a guarantor of our personal freedom,” Wüst asserted. Especially in times of Russian aggression, it is “an indispensable alliance for peace in the world,” he added.

    In addition to the main prize, a youth prize is also awarded. In 2026, the youth network “socioMovens” will be recognized. The organization has been organising regular projects with young people in Central and Eastern Europe since 2013.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • NATO member Romania signs agreement with Germany’s Rheinmetall to build a gunpowder plant

    [ad_1]

    BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — NATO member Romania signed an agreement Monday with German defense company Rheinmetall to build a gunpowder factory in central Romania, as Europe races to rearm itself in the face of an increasingly provocative Russia.

    After signing the deal, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan hailed the joint venture between the Romanian state and Europe’s largest arms producer as a sign that Romania is “emerging as a player with potential in the defense industry of Southeast Europe.”

    Construction of the 535 million-euro ($616 million) plant in the town of Victoria in Brasov County is expected to start in 2026, take three years to complete and create about 700 local jobs, he said. Romania will seek to finance part of its contributions through the European SAFE mechanism to encourage defense readiness.

    “After many years in which our defense industry was in little demand, Romania is entering a new stage because of the security situation in Eastern Europe,” Bolojan said. “I’m glad Rheinmetall sees us as an important and serious partner and is strengthening its presence in Romania.”

    Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said the ammunition powder to be produced at the factory is “needed worldwide and especially in Europe,” and will make Romania a key player in the continent’s defense ecosystem.

    “The strategy is to make Romania an integral part of the European ecosystem,” Papperger said. “Romania will also be an integral part of the NATO ecosystem.”

    Since Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in NATO. It has donated a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opened an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries, including Ukraine.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Trump administration’s Europe troop drawdown fuels concern amid NATO allies, draws fire even from Republicans

    [ad_1]

    NATO and some of America’s allies in the transatlantic alliance have sought to ease concerns over the Trump administration’s move to reduce the U.S. military’s presence in Europe amid Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine and as it’s accused of ramping up hybrid warfare against NATO nations. 

    The Pentagon announced Thursday that it was reducing the number of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Europe. U.S. officials told CBS News that around 700 U.S. airborne troops who have been deployed in Germany, Romania and Poland would come home and not be replaced.

    In a statement, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa said it was part of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “deliberate process to ensure a balanced U.S. military force posture,” and “not an American withdrawal from Europe or a signal of lessened commitment to NATO and Article 5. Rather this is a positive sign of increased European capability and responsibility.”

    U.S. soldiers operate pusher vessels and a transportation barge on the Danube river, during Saber Guardian 25 military exercises in Frecatei, eastern Romania, June 13, 2025.

    DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty


    “Our NATO allies are meeting President Trump’s call to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe,” the Army said. “This force posture adjustment will not change the security environment in Europe.”

    NATO and allies stress “U.S.’s continued commitment” to Europe 

    On Thursday, appearing keen to ease such concerns, Estonian Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur said in a statement that the U.S. had “made a significant decision to maintain its military presence in Estonia, reaffirming the U.S.’s continued commitment to the defense of the region and NATO’s entire eastern flank.”

    “We are working to further strengthen the U.S. military presence in our region,” he added.

    In September, Estonia said Russian military jets had violated the country’s airspace for 12 minutes, just days after Poland said more than 20 Russian drones entered its airspace. This week, Lithuania closed its border with Russia’s close ally Belarus, after accusing both countries of a “deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare.”

    NATO says deterrence measures along its eastern flank have been “massively reinforced” over the last decade “as a direct result of Russia’s behavior.” That boundary runs from the Arctic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

    European member states of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Vector illustration

    A map shows in dark blue the European nations which, along with the United States and Canada, are members of the transatlantic NATO defense alliance. 

    brichuas/Getty


    The reinforcements include U.S. troops, but the Trump administration has pushed its European NATO allies hard to take more responsibility — and bear more of the financial burden — for their own security, announcing earlier this year that it would make the Indo-Pacific a primary foreign policy focus, rather than Europe, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

    “The decision was expected,” Romania’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement Wednesday, referring to the announcement of the U.S. troop reduction. 

    U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said in a social media post that America’s partnership with Romania “remains stronger than ever,” and reiterated the Pentagon’s message that it was in response to European forces’ increased capacities.

    The reassurances have not quelled debate about whether the move could be just the beginning of a wider U.S. withdrawal from Europe. The Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post reported Friday that further American troop reductions are expected, with troops to be pulled from Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary by the end of the year.

    There was no immediate public response to the report from the Pentagon or the Trump administration.

    NATO has also sought to ease concerns, with a senior military official from the alliance telling CBS News on Thursday that, “even with this adjustment, the U.S. force posture in Europe remains larger than it has been for many years.” 

    “U.S. commitment to NATO is clear,” the official said. “President Trump and his administration have reiterated this time and again. NATO has robust defense plans in place and we are working to ensure we maintain the right forces and capabilities in place to deter and defend each other.”

    Concern in Washington, from both sides of the aisle

    The announcement drew bipartisan criticism in Washington, with some senior lawmakers warning it could embolden Russia and undermine the NATO alliance.

    In a joint statement issued Thursday by the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, the chairmen of that committee and the corresponding Senate body — both Republicans — said they strongly opposed the change in the U.S. deployment in Romania, which they said “appears uncoordinated and directly at odds with the President’s strategy.” 

    Senator Roger Wicker and Representative Mike Rogers, in the statement, also indicated that they believed the Pentagon could make further reductions to the U.S. deployment in Europe.

    “We strongly oppose the decision not to maintain the rotational U.S. brigade in Romania and the Pentagon’s process for its ongoing force posture review that may result in further drawdowns of U.S. forces from Eastern Europe,” said the Republican lawmakers.

    “On March 19, we stated that we will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the Joint Staff, and collaboration with Congress,” said Wicker and Rogers. “Unfortunately, this appears to be exactly what is being attempted.”

    On Thursday, Rep. Mike Turner, also a Republican and the head of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, said he was “concerned by reports of reductions of US forces in Romania.”

    “Congress has been clear that US force posture across Europe must remain robust and resolute. Russia’s aggressive actions against Eastern Flank countries through intentional airspace incursions underscores Russia’s ambition beyond Ukraine,” said Turner. “It is in our national security interests to support our NATO Allies as they rightly ramp up their investments in their defense capabilities.”

    Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the decision to reduce the U.S. presence in the region “deeply misguided” in a statement released Thursday.

    “This decision sends exactly the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin as he continues his murderous campaign in Ukraine and tests NATO resolve through provocations against other frontline states,” she said.

    Charlie D’Agata,

    Steve Berriman and

    Tucker Reals

    contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • As Russia Tests NATO’s Limits, Estonia’s Tech Scene Heats Up

    [ad_1]

    When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it came as little surprise to the  international community: leaders from various countries were warning weeks in advance that Vladimir Putin was poised to launch his attack, and made increasingly desperate public pleas to the Russian leader to step back from the brink—until it was too late. As for the Baltic states that border Russia? They told me they’d been expecting such an action for years, and had encountered meddling and mischief-making from Putin themselves.

    That’s partly why Estonia, whose eastern border abuts the west of Russia, has become Estonia has become an outsourced tech lab and factory for Ukraine’s frontline. 

    “If you are in war, your sense of urgency is different,” says Allan Martinson, a board member at the Estonian Founders’ Society, who has been around the country’s tech sector for 35 years. Martinson says that Estonia’s defense tech sector has coalesced in the last three years—since Russia crossed the border into Ukraine—and now accounts for around 10 percent of the total Estonian tech sector in terms of revenues.

    The Ukrainian Connection 

    Around 150 companies operate in Estonia’s defense tech sector, and around a third of them are run by Ukrainians, says Martinson—many of whom are still based in their home country but have taken advantage of Estonia’s e-Residency program. (The program allows non-Estonian residents to set up companies in the country within minutes, thanks to its entirely digital government processes.)

    The influx of Ukrainians looking to launch tech startups designed to help keep their country safe in a neighboring country has been a “very interesting contribution” to the Estonian tech sector, says Martinson. For Ukrainians, Estonia offers a link to the European Union and NATO member states—Ukraine is currently a member of neither entity. In fact, Ukraine’s attempts to sign up to both blocs is part of Putin’s tenuous public justification for his war. 

    “If there are teams that are building in the trenches to beat Russia right now, when they have a moment to think about, ‘Okay, how do we work with our NATO partners? How do you sell to them?’ then Estonia makes a lot of sense. It’s nearby,” says Sten Tamkivi, a former Skype executive who is now a partner at Plural, an Estonian-based tech investment firm. 

    Plural recently invested in Helsing, a defense tech firm that initially developed AI battlefield software, but which expanded into building autonomous strike drones late last year. Tamkivi calls it “the biggest tech breakout story in European defense right now. Helsing’s eastern NATO flank operations are run through Estonia.

    The links are also deep between the two countries’ governments: the current advisor to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister on AI and digital transformation, Kristjan Ilves, is also the former chief information officer of the Estonian government.

    So while Russia’s movement through Ukraine has stalled thanks to international support, including Estonia, those on the streets of Tallinn and in its tech sector are prepared for any incursion that could come.

    “Mentally speaking, I don’t think if you ask people on the street today they will answer that they’re in war,” says Martinson. “But are they afraid of war? My own perception is that we recognize there is a danger, but we are also not afraid. We are preparing on a national level and individual level, with defense entrepreneurs.”

    Just days before Martinson spoke to me, Russia flew fighter jets over Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, reaching within seconds of the capital, Tallinn, before being escorted out of the country by scrambled NATO jets. But for now, Estonia is a comparatively safe third-party location for Ukrainian entrepreneurs to base their business and its infrastructure. 

    Jumping through hoops 

    One snag in all of this is a NATO policy that requires all defense tech to serve a dual purpose in order to receive NATO funding, and to be part of any NATO state’s supply chain. The need to pretend to have a dual use for technologies that can save lives or defend borders means that encrypted radio communications tech firms are pretending their products could have use in the mining industry in order to attract investors’ eye. 

     “People are inventing these fake use cases to leave an image that they’re going to go to civilian use cases where they really should be focusing on building what’s necessary right now,” says Tamkivi. “It’s like, ‘Okay, let’s do defense, but let’s at least stay safe. Let’s say that nobody gets hurt,’” he says. “It’s this irrational or unrealistic picture of what is going on,” Tamkivi adds.

    Still, Estonia, and NATO countries on the bloc’s eastern flank are more exposed than other NATO states to the problems that can come from a more belligerent Russia. So Estonians tend to believe that there needs to be more action taken to try and tackle the threat. 

    Ragnar Saas, co-founder of Estonian defense tech venture capital firm Darkstar, compares the sense of urgency to Ukraine, where innovations are coming thick and fast: “How fast tech is growing in defense is probably the fastest area I know,” he says. “Those guys in Ukraine work seven days a week, because you’re basically defending your home.”

    Saas, whose wife is Ukrainian, and who sends convoys of vehicles from Estonia to Ukraine to help the war effort there, is bullish about Ukraine’s future—in large part because of its tech prowess, backed up by friendly nations like Estonia. “The biggest and best strategy for how Ukraine will win is by their tech,” he says. “They’re developing new weapons systems.”

    The next front

    Christoph Kühn, the German deputy director of NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, which is based in a square, squat building on the outskirts of the Estonian capital, says that in his personal belief NATO is already at war with Russia in the cybersphere. The secretary-general of the Estonian foreign ministry, Jonatan Vseviov, gave the same message: Estonia is at war with Russia already, and is willing to defend itself, including by mobilizing its tech sector.

    Estonia’s government is responding to that threat. “For Estonia, helping Ukraine as much as possible is very important,” says Estonian prime minister Kristen Michal, who has been in post for a little over a year. “It’s a priority.” So much so that in the days after Estonia was buzzed by Russian warplanes, his cabinet approved devoting 5 percent of its entire budget to defense.

    “I hope that we can be of assistance and contact with Ukraine, for their defensive industry to exchange intellectual property and different kinds of innovations which are happening there,” Michal says. “Conflicts are usually best for innovation,” he adds.

    The country punches above its weight when it comes to tech innovation: Its unicorns include Skype, Wise, Bolt and Playtech, a leading gambling tech firm. And Estonians believe that they can put that power of innovation to purposes that do more than just benefit people. They can help protect Europe – and themselves. 

    “Five years ago, in the whole of Europe, I would suspect that nobody was thinking about the defense tech industry as part of their defense capabilities,” says prime minister Michal. “But right now, after what is happening in Ukraine, they really say, ‘When something happens, we need things to be done here. So we need innovation here. We need things to do here.’”

    The prime minister’s word choice seems deliberate. At the minute, Estonia sees things as a case of ‘when’, not ‘if’.

    [ad_2]

    Chris Stokel-Walker

    Source link

  • Lithuania accuses Belarus, Russia of

    [ad_1]

    The government of Lithuania, which is a member of the U.S.-led NATO alliance, said Monday that it will start shooting down unidentified balloons that enter the country’s airspace, after a number of them allegedly launched from neighboring Belarus forced the repeated closure of a major airport.

    Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene warned Monday that any further balloons detected would be shot down after operations at Vilnius International Airport, which serves the capital city, were halted a total of four times last week.

    “Today we have decided to take the strictest measures, there is no other way,” Ruginiene told journalists, according to Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, calling the incidents “hybrid attacks” and saying her country could discuss invoking the collective defense clause in the founding NATO treaty over the incidents. 

    Article 4 can be invoked by any NATO member that feels its security is at risk, which would spark talks among the allies to discuss the threat. Article 4 has been invoked nine times in NATO’s history, three of which related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

    Lithuania believes smugglers use the balloons to transport contraband cigarettes over the border, but it has criticized Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, for not clamping down.

    In this undated photo released by the State Border Guard Service of Lithuania, an officer inspects a balloon used to carry cigarettes into the country by suspected Belorussian smugglers.

    State Border Guard Service via AP


    “Inaction is also an action,” Ruginiene said after a meeting of her country’s National Security Commission on Monday. “If Belarus does nothing about it and does not fight, we also assess these actions accordingly.”

    Ruginiene added that her government would indefinitely close its land border with Belarus, apart from for diplomats and returning European Union nationals, according to LRT.

    “This is how we send a signal to Belarus and say that no hybrid attack will be tolerated here, we will take all the strictest measures to stop such attacks,” she said.

    “Our response will determine how far autocrats dare to go,” Ruginiene’s office said in a statement sent later Monday to CBS News.

    There was no immediate comment on the incident from officials in Belarus.

    “Calculated provocations”

    Many of America’s European allies have had their airspace breached in recent weeks, mostly by unclaimed drones sighted around airports and military facilities in Germany, Denmark and the Baltic states. Estonia also accused Russian fighter jets of flying through its airspace for 12 minutes in mid-September.

    Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said Monday in a post on social media that NATO was facing a “deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare from Russia and its proxy, Belarus,” calling the spate of recent airspace incursions, “calculated provocations designed to destabilize, distract and test NATO’s resolve.”

    He called for further sanctions against Belarus and stronger NATO security measures to deter the airspace violations.

    On October 23, a Russian Sukhoi SU-30 fighter and an IL-78 tanker plane flew just under half of a mile into Lithuanian territory, according to the country’s ministry of foreign affairs, after departing from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. The Baltic Sea coastal territory is separate from the rest of Russia, and bordered on two sides by Lithuania and Poland.

    Lithuania is highlighted on a map of northern Europe.

    Lithuania borders both Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica/Universal Images Group via Getty Images


    Two days before that, several “meteorological balloons” launched from Belarus were detected by Lithuanian radar systems in the country’s airspace, disrupting travel at Vilnius’ airport, the foreign ministry said.

    Lithuania summoned the top Belorussian diplomat in the country on October 22 to voice a “strong protest regarding the repeated and increasingly frequent violations” of its airspace, warning the Russian ally that Vilnius “reserves the right to take appropriate retaliatory measures.”

    Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said earlier this month that at least 544 balloons had already entered Lithuanian airspace this year, according to CBS News’ partner network BBC News. The center said 966 such balloon incursions were recorded during 2024.

    “Last year we were blind chickens and didn’t see many things,” Ruginiene said Monday. “Thank God, there was no catastrophe. We didn’t see certain moving objects, so there were no decisions to close the airspace.”

    “Today we have much better equipment, we can see much more information,” she said, according to LRT. “We believe that we need to take action to protect our citizens.” 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Russia unleashes fresh wave of deadly strikes on Ukraine after Trump’s summit with Putin called off

    [ad_1]

    Kyiv – A Russian missile and drone barrage on Ukraine killed six people in and around the capital Kyiv overnight, including two children, proving once again that Vladimir Putin isn’t feeling “enough pressure” to end the war against his neighbors, Ukraine’s leader said. 

    The wave of strikes left at least 17 other people wounded and triggered power cuts across the country, Ukrainian authorities said, hours after President Trump’s efforts to settle the nearly four-year war appeared to hit another roadblock. The White House said Tuesday that a planned meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin in Hungary — announced by the U.S. leader less than a week earlier — was cancelled.

    A White House official said there were “no plans” for such a meeting in the “immediate future,” after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a “productive call,” but determined that another in-person presidential summit was “not necessary.”  

    Mr. Trump told reporters later Tuesday that he didn’t want to “have a wasted meeting.”

    “Another night proving that Russia does not feel enough pressure for dragging out the war,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media following the latest overnight Russian attack on his country. “As of now, 17 people are known to have been injured. Unfortunately, six people were killed, among them two children.”

    A woman takes a photo of a residential building damaged during by a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Oct. 22, 2025.

    Alina Smutko/REUTERS


    AFP journalists in Kyiv heard multiple explosions during the night and saw a pillar of smoke rising above the capital. The strikes also targeted the country’s energy infrastructure, leaving thousands without heating and electricity across Ukraine as cold fall temperatures start to bite, according to the energy ministry.

    “Due to a massive missile and drone attack on the energy infrastructure, emergency power outages have been introduced in most regions of Ukraine,” it said in a statement.

    Russia said it had intercepted 33 Ukrainian drones overnight without reporting any substantial damage.

    Mr. Trump had said last week that he would meet Putin for peace talks in the Hungarian capital Budapest within two weeks, following what he called a productive two-hour phone call with the Russian leader. 

    This week Mr. Trump said that while he believed Ukraine “could still win” the war, “I don’t think they will.”

    The president has pressured Zelenskyy to give up Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, 78% of which Mr. Trump said Russia’s invading forces already control, during talks at the White House on Friday, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP. 

    uk-intel-ukaine-front-line-map.jpg

    A map posted online by the U.K. Defence Intelligence agency on Oct. 17, 2025 shows the British government’s assessment of the front line in eastern Ukraine, with the area occupied by Russia’s invading forces shown pink.

    U.K. Defense Intelligence agency


    Ukraine’s leaders have repeatedly rejected those calls to give up any land, and many of America’s European allies have warned against appeasing Russia by allowing it to unilaterally seize part of a sovereign nation.

    France, Germany and Britain have lead the charge to rally behind Ukraine, rejecting the idea of Kyiv giving up territory and the White House’s repeated suggestion that the fighting should be frozen along the current front lines. Ukraine’s European partners, under the guises of the “coalition of the willing,” are due to meet again in London on Friday to discuss support for Kyiv’s war effort.

    But Zelenskyy has in recent days indicated a willingness to at least negotiate with Russia under a halt to the fighting based on Mr. Trump’s proposal to freeze the battle lines where they currently stand.

    Speaking Wednesday during a visit to Oslo, Norway, Zelenskyy said Mr. Trump had “proposed: ‘Stay where we stay and begin conversation’,” and he called that “a good compromise,” but the Ukrainian leader added: “I’m not sure that Putin will support it, and I said it to the president.”

    In a statement following the overnight attack, Zelenskyy said “Russian words about diplomacy mean nothing as long as the Russian leadership does not feel critical problems.”

    Aftermath of Russian missile and drone attack in Kyiv

    A woman pets her dogs near residential buildings damaged by a Russian drone and missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 22, 2025.

    Alina Smutko/REUTERS


    Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to demilitarize the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.

    Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an illegal land grab that has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian and military casualties and widespread destruction.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • NATO Tests ‘Unjammable, Undetectable’ Laser Comms at Sea—and It Worked

    [ad_1]

    If you’ve ever been out at sea, you may be aware that it’s near impossible to catch a good signal on your phone. Instead, seafarers rely on radio-frequency-based systems to communicate with other ships—a method with many advantages but potential shortcomings for more discreet, sensitive missions.

    But a new technology developed by Astrolight, a Lithuanian space and defense tech company, proposes to switch out radio for lasers, which the company calls a “secure, optical” tool for marine operations. In an emailed press release, Astrolight reported that its installation and testing of POLARIS, a laser-based system, successfully handled communications for REPMUS 2025, NATO’s largest annual naval exercise.

    “We installed two POLARIS terminals on different ships, which sailed through a relatively rough Baltic Sea that day with some rain as well, and were still able to establish and maintain a communication link between the ships,” explained Astrolight CEO Laurynas Maciulis in a release. Their customers, the Lithuanian Navy, were also “very satisfied with the results,” he added.

    Lasers at sea

    According to Astrolight, POLARIS is a “small, gimballed free space optical (FSO) communication solution for large naval vessels” weighing about 35 pounds (16 kilograms). Essentially, an FSO device converts data into a binary format, which is then transmitted to the receiving end in the form of a light signal.

    Ordinary remote controls use a very simplified version of this technology, which allows data to travel through “free space,” whether that is air, outer space, or a vacuum. That flexibility potentially makes it useful for a variety of applications.

    In this case, POLARIS achieved “a radio-silent, unjammable, and undetectable communication link between the ships,” reported DIANA, a NATO initiative for contracting the private sector to deliver technological solutions to security issues. Impressively, the terminals established a secure, private connection between two ships over a 9-mile (15-kilometer) range, “exceeding their initial targets by 200%,” DIANA stated in a LinkedIn post.

    In addition, the terminals successfully processed gigabytes of data for “more than 10 concurrent, real-time HD video streams, even through rain and fog, during the day and night,” according to Astrolight’s statement.

    Lasers in space?

    “With persistent and rising GPS jamming attacks in NATO territories, we needed to test [POLARIS] in real-life conditions as soon as possible,” added Astrolight CTO Dalius Petrulionis in the same release. “Exercise results showed that our laser technology is a reliable and operable alternative to radio frequency-based communication—now it’s time to scale.”

    With the success of POLARIS, Astrolight hopes to first expand the use of its terminals on ships. It’s also reviewing whether similar systems could work for research operations in harsh, cold environments, such as the Arctic.

    But the company’s grandest goals appear to be in outer space. Across the different media posts, it noted its upcoming plans for ATLAS-2, an optical terminal meant to support satellite communications in and out of Earth. The terminal’s launch is currently slated to take place in early 2026.

    [ad_2]

    Gayoung Lee

    Source link

  • Opinion | The Oct. 7 Warning for the U.S. on China

    [ad_1]

    Hamas’s shock troops poured across Israel’s border two years ago, kidnapping, raping and killing civilian men, women and children. Israel’s bitter experience offers lessons America should learn before our own moment of reckoning.

    The most important is that the hypothetical war can actually happen. Even if we’re intellectually prepared, there’s a risk that years of relative peace has lulled us into a false sense of security. The Israeli defense establishment never truly believed Hamas would launch a full-scale invasion. They viewed Gaza as a chronic but manageable problem—one for diplomats and intelligence officers, distant from the daily concerns of citizens. Israeli politicians and generals also spoke of open conflict with the Iran-led Islamist axis much like their American counterparts speak of China and a Taiwan crisis—the pacing threat and the most likely test, yes, but ultimately a question for tomorrow. Then tomorrow came.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

    [ad_2]

    Mike Gallagher

    Source link

  • Opinion | Time to Abandon ‘Active Defense’ in Ukraine

    [ad_1]

    The doctrine proved to be ineffective after Vietnam, but better ideas came with Reagan’s military buildup.

    [ad_2]

    Mark T. Kimmitt

    Source link

  • NATO general says Ukraine improving strikes deep inside Russia

    [ad_1]

    Ukraine has significantly improved its ability to strike military targets deep inside Russia, German Major General Maik Keller told dpa, highlighting advances in personnel, equipment and training.

    “The Ukrainians are getting better at reaching militarily relevant targets in Russia’s depth. This is a question of capability, and capability means personnel, material and training,” he said.

    Keller serves as deputy commander of the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which coordinates alliance support from its base at the Lucius D Clay Barracks in Wiesbaden, Germany.

    Experts from 30 nations, including non-NATO partners Australia and New Zealand as well as Ukraine itself, work in Wiesbaden to ensure Kiev’s needs for weapons, ammunition, spare parts and equipment are met. The mission also advises Ukraine and aligns its forces with NATO standards — though Keller stressed the learning goes both ways.

    According to the NATO general, drones are a prime example of how Ukraine has advanced warfare. Few can teach the Ukrainians much in this field, he noted, pointing to combat, logistics and even medical evacuation drones, as well as naval systems.

    The German military and NATO allies were learning from these innovations in technology, operations, and doctrine, he added.

    “Our core mission is to coordinate support for Ukraine,” Keller said. “But we would be foolish not to use this knowledge to improve ourselves and spare our own soldiers from repeating Ukraine’s hard lessons.”

    Keller’s remarks come as Berlin pledged €300 million ($351 million) to help Ukraine produce thousands of long-range drones. Kiev has recently stepped up its strikes, targeting Russian oil refineries and infrastructure critical for diesel and petrol production.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Denmark reports drone sightings at military facilities as NATO warns Russia about violating airspace | Fortune

    [ad_1]

    The Danish defense ministry said Saturday that “drones have been observed at several of Danish defense facilities.”

    The new drone sightings overnight Friday into Saturday come after there were several drone sightings in the Nordic country earlier this week, with some of them temporarily shutting down Danish airports.

    Several local media outlets reported that one or more drones were seen near or above the Karup Air Base, which is Denmark’s biggest military base.

    The defense ministry refused to confirm the sighting at Karup or elsewhere and said that “for reasons of operational security and the ongoing investigation, the Defense Command Denmark does not wish to elaborate further on drone sightings.”

    The ministry clarified later to public broadcaster DR that reports of additional drone activity at Skrydstrup Air Base and the Jutland Dragoon Regiment referred to sightings that didn’t occur overnight from Friday to Saturday. Its earlier statement seemed to imply that timing, and was widely reported.

    The ministry couldn’t be reached immediately for confirmation, but a statement on its website referring to the incidents at the base and barracks was dated Thursday — though it didn’t directly confirm the sightings took place that day.

    Anxiety and suspicion

    Tensions have been running high in Denmark in recent days after various reports of drone activity, and hundreds of possible sightings reported by concerned citizens couldn’t officially be confirmed. Nonetheless, the public has been asked to report all suspicious activity to police.

    On Saturday, DR and several other local media reported that in Karup, there were drones in the air both inside and outside the fence of the air base at around 8 p.m. on Friday, quoting Simon Skelkjær, the duty manager at the Central and West Jutland Police.

    DR said that for a period of time, the airspace was closed to civil air traffic, but that didn’t have much practical significance as there is currently no civil aviation in Karup.

    The repeated unexplained drone activity, including over four Danish airports overnight Wednesday into Thursday and a similar incident at Copenhagen Airport, has raised concerns about security in northern Europe amid suspected growing Russian aggression.

    Flights were grounded in the Danish capital for hours on Monday night.

    The goal of the flyovers is to sow fear and division, Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard said Thursday, adding that the country will seek additional ways to neutralize drones, including proposing legislation to allow infrastructure owners to shoot them down.

    For the upcoming European Union summit next week, the Denmark’s defense ministry said on X that the country’s government had accepted an offer from Sweden to “lend Denmark a military anti-drone capability,” without giving further details.

    German reports drone sightings

    In neighboring Germany, several drones were reported in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark, from Thursday into Friday night.

    The state’s interior minister, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, said that “the state police are currently significantly stepping up their drone defense measures, also in coordination with other northern German states,” German news agency dpa reported. She didn’t provide further details, citing the ongoing investigations.

    German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters on Saturday afternoon that his ministry is working on new anti-drone rules that aim to detect, intercept and — if needed — also shoot down drones.

    On Thursday, European defense ministers agreed to develop a “drone wall” along their borders with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.

    German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that in regard to frequent attacks on infrastructure and data networks, “we are not at war, but we are no longer living in peace either.” He didn’t allude to a certain country as the actor behind those attacks.

    “Drone flights, espionage, the Tiergarten murder, massive threats to individual public figures, not only in Germany but also in many other European countries. Acts of sabotage on a daily basis. Attempts to paralyze data centers. Cyberattacks,” he added during a speech at the Schwarz Ecosystem Summit in Berlin on Friday, dpa reported.

    What became known as the “Tiergarten murder” in Germany refers to the case of Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of the Aug. 23, 2019, killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany. Krasikov was returned to Russia as part of a massive prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia in 2024.

    One of the six runways at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was closed for about 45 minutes early Saturday afternoon after reports of a drone sighting around noon (1000 GMT), military police spokesman Doron Wallin told The Associated Press. Aircraft were redirected to another runway.

    Wallin said no drone or drone pilot was found and the runway was reopened. He said that such reported sightings are a regular occurence, with 22 so far this year.

    NATO discusses airspace violations

    Later on Saturday, Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, said at a NATO meeting in Riga, Latvia, that “Russian aircraft and drones, on top of the already existing measures will now find the resolute response of the newly established and already operational Eastern Sentry activity, which further strengthen NATO’s ability to react quickly and decisively against this kind of reckless behavior.”

    “Russia bears full responsibility for these actions,” Dragone said. “Today, I express full and unequivocal solidarity with all allies whose airspace has been breached. The alliance’s response has been robust and will only continue to strengthen,” he said.

    Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said that “the immediate priority today is clearly air defense.”

    “Russia continues a pattern of provocations, most recently recklessly violating the airspace of Poland and Estonia,” Rinkēvičs said.

    [ad_2]

    Kirsten Grieshaber, The Associated Press

    Source link