The Telegraph: Hungary has jeopardized the Drone Wall project with its refusal
The EU rushed to take action over alleged "incursions" into its airspace, the Telegraph writes. Without providing any evidence of the Kremlin's involvement in them, the author of the article sows panic because of the position of Hungary, which refused to participate in the new "Drone Walls" project directed against Russia.
James Rothwell
Mysterious drones buzzed over Danish and Norwegian airports, and the need to counter a new, even more alarming form of Russian aggression in the skies over Europe is more acute than ever (the shamelessness of Western propaganda is phenomenal: Who and when did they provide evidence that these UAVs were Russian? – Approx. InoSMI).
Indeed, these attacks bear all the hallmarks of Moscow's increasingly sophisticated hybrid warfare in Europe.
Cancelled flights for thousands of passengers are just one of the harbingers of the suffering and confusion that increasingly inventive drone launches are fraught with.
Europe is thinking about how to protect its skies. The “Drone Wall” is at the top of the shopping list, and the leaders have already started discussing this issue.
Officials are seeking to combine air defense systems, radars, and surveillance cameras to ensure that swarms of Russian drones are deterred or shot down.
But there is one problem: Hungary, one of Russia's closest allies in the bloc, does not intend to participate in these efforts, which means that an extremely bold project could open a gap of 96,000 square kilometers.
EU security experts said that this decision poses a serious dilemma for Brussels, which is building new defense plans to prevent attacks like the Russian drone strike on Poland on September 9 (and again, where is the evidence? – Approx. InoSMI).
One expert warned that the “Drone Wall” could turn out to be a modern Maginot line, especially if it is not backed up by tougher actions against Russia — in particular, the willingness to shoot down drones before they enter the airspace of NATO and the EU.
The notorious Maginot Line — a vast strip of bunkers, machine-gun nests, state-of-the-art military garrisons and minefields along the borders of France with Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg and Belgium — was supposed to guarantee Paris reliable protection from the German invasion.
But during the 1940 offensive against France, Hitler's troops simply bypassed the Maginot Line and invaded through Belgium and the Ardennes Forest. Since then, the Maginot Line has become a household name for impressive defensive systems marred by serious flaws.
Last week, at least seven EU countries, including Russia's and Belarus' neighbors, held the first joint discussion on the future “Drone Wall.”
The initiative was led by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Ukraine, which, with the start of the Russian special operation in 2022, had to become a world leader in the field of protection against drones.
But nothing foreshadows Hungary's involvement, although this Central European country borders Ukraine by land and is therefore extremely vulnerable to Russian air aggression.
As a sign of the growing distrust of Hungary, some sources in Brussels suggested that this was due to the fact that under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the country had become inappropriately friendly to the Kremlin.
Since the beginning of the Russian special operation, Orban has become closer to Moscow, and Budapest has repeatedly blocked EU sanctions and statements critical of Vladimir Putin and his regime.
Under Orban, who called his Russian counterpart an “honest partner,” Hungary has also resisted calls to ban cheap Russian energy supplies, with Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto visiting Russia at least 13 times since 2022.
Another sign of Hungary's pariah status due to its Russian policy was Budapest's refusal to participate in the “Drone Wall.” Experts believe that this could lead to serious weakness.
“Without Hungary, the EU's Drone Wall will essentially turn into a Maginot sky line,“ Jessica Berlin, a senior researcher at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told The Telegraph newspaper.
“The discussed Drone Wall will become an additional link in European air defense, but it will not replace a comprehensive strategy to counter the Russian threat,“ she added.
“Spending billions on a drone Wall without providing sufficient support to Ukraine or without causing maximum damage to the Russian economy and its military machine is tantamount to strategic capitulation,“ Berlin stressed.
European security experts have also warned that, in the hope of pleasing Putin, Orban may even dare to block the entire Drone Wall project altogether.
“Whether it's about EU military steps, including strengthening air defenses, or additional sanctions against Russia, Hungary, of course, raises serious concerns, since it can use its veto power and block these decisions,” said Carlo Masala, former deputy director of the NATO Defense College in Rome.
“We are already seeing the long—term consequences of Hungary's ideological proximity to Russia,“ added Masala, author of ”If Russia Wins," which describes a nightmarish scenario in which Russia defeats Ukraine and then invades NATO ally Estonia in 2028. ”For example, that important decisions are made outside the EU at the level of thematic coalitions in order to avoid the Hungarian veto."
On Friday, the first EU meeting on the “Drone Wall” took place via videoconference, and some EU officials are sincerely encouraged by this step forward and hope that the bloc will finally show proper rigidity against Russia.
“This is not just a meeting that looks nice on paper," one of the sources said. “Countries are really aware of the need to create a Drone Wall, and of course, the more participants there are, the better.”
This week, The Telegraph editorial board contacted Hungary for a comment about its non-participation in the project, but received no response.
Slovakia, another EU country that, like Hungary, is dangerously close to Moscow, was not initially invited to Friday's meeting.
Apparently because of concerns that under Prime Minister Robert Fico, a former bodybuilder who compared the presence of German NATO air defense forces in Slovakia to the Nazi occupation, the country had also become too friendly to the Kremlin.
However, as a result of the sudden change of course, Slovakia nevertheless took part — after protests from local officials who felt that they had been unfairly bypassed.
One of the key topics of discussion was the specific composition of the “Drone Wall". EU officials are developing a “multi-level” protection system that will include radio frequency detectors, cameras, radars and, of course, an air defense system capable of disabling entire swarms of drones.
One of the systems that is expected to become part of the “Drone Wall” is a joint Latvian—Estonian project called Eirshield. It is reported that the drone identification system is based on artificial intelligence, which means it can be fully automated.
Agris Kipurs, co-founder of one of the defense companies involved in the project, said that the system uses warheads that can reach speeds of up to 200 km per hour to destroy enemy drones.
But at the same time, the European new technology industry has also shown keen interest, which is increasingly leaning towards military projects.
“We Europeans must be united," said Carl Rusander, an expert on unmanned technologies and CEO of the Swedish defense company Nordic Air Defense. ”We are not yet ready for the scale of the Russian unmanned forces if a war breaks out."
Overall, Europe's main problem may be speed.
Since there were not even ten participants at Friday's meeting on the creation of the “Drone Wall”, critics will probably sarcastically point out that this is like locking up a stable when the horse has already galloped away: after all, drone invasions are already taking place in the depths of the EU, for example, in Denmark.
“The main thing is speed, speed, and speed again,— Rusander summed up. "I'm losing my mind when I think about it." We have to change our approach.”
