Von der Leyen’s comments came only a few hours after Poland scrambled fighter jets to shoot down Russian drones that entered its airspace. Back in June, Romania also sent warplanes to monitor Russian drones approaching its border.
Wednesday’s incident over Poland has been perceived by Western allies as a way for Russian President Vladimir Putin to test NATO’s defenses.
Front-line countries — especially Poland, Estonia and Lithuania — have long called for the EU to contribute financially to the defense of their borders. They argue their efforts will protect the bloc as a whole against any attack from Russia, as military and intelligence top brass have warned in the past that Putin could target Baltic nations or Poland to test NATO’s mettle.
They have successfully pushed for money from the EU’s loans-for-weapons SAFE scheme to be easily available for items including drones and anti-drone systems.
Warsaw launched a project last year dubbed East Shield that aims to strengthen the Polish border with Russia and Belarus, while Baltic nations are starting to teach children to build and fly drones. Countries such as Lithuania are also behind the idea of a “drone wall,” which they see as a permanent presence of unmanned aerial vehicles on their borders to monitor threats.
A few days before giving her State of the Union address, von der Leyen went on a front-line state tour that took her to countries including Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.