BRUSSELS
\nEU defence ministers grappled Tuesday with bolstering Ukraine\u2019s air defences, as worries grow over Russia\u2019s campaign to destabilise Kyiv\u2019s European backers. Moscow has taken advantage of Ukraine running low on US-built air defence missiles to pummel the country, while Kyiv has hit back against Russian infrastructure with its own long-range strikes.
\nA barrage of Russian drones and ballistic missiles killed at least 12 people in Kyiv and its region overnight Monday to Tuesday, according to Ukraine, just as children were to return to school after the summer. \u201cRussia is really escalating to hurt the people of Ukraine as much as possible, to break them,\u201d EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told journalists as two days of talks kicked off in the Irish town of Wicklow.
\nDefence ministers, who met on Tuesday before EU foreign ministers hold their own talks Wednesday, were set to speak to Ukraine\u2019s new acting defence minister Yevgeniy Khmara. But there appears to be little they can do to massively increase the supply of desperately needed air interceptors to Ukraine, beyond pressuring European countries that still have stockpiles and urging the likes of Japan and South Korea to share more.
\n\u201cWe know that some of the countries have interceptors that will expire soon. So it would be very good if those would be given to Ukraine,\u201d Kallas said. While the Kremlin escalates its air campaign against Ukraine, there have been growing worries that Moscow is also looking to deflect from its battlefield troubles by ramping up so-called \u201chybrid\u201d operations in Europe.
\nGerman Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his country had increasingly \u201cfound itself in the crosshairs of hybrid attackers\u201d after an explosive-laden drone was found in August at Leipzig airport, a crucial military transport hub. Berlin has not yet officially blamed Russia over the incident, but the clear suggestion is that the finger of blame is pointing at Moscow.
\nFuelling the concerns over Russia\u2019s intentions, CIA chief John Ratcliffe paid a surprise visit to Moscow last week, with US media reporting he warned Russia against attacking any NATO country. EU officials insist they do not believe Moscow is preparing for a military attack any time soon, but they are bracing for more incidents in the grey zone beneath open conflict.
\n\u201cThey are testing always this threshold, where is this red line,\u201d said Estonian defence minister Hanno Pevkur. \u201cBut we also keep our heads very clear and calm, and will not overreact to that, when it\u2019s not a military attack.\u201d While Merz said those behind the incidents in Germany will \u201cpay for them\u201d, Europe has struggled to counter the low-level campaign of sabotage and interference it blames on Moscow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS EU defence ministers grappled Tuesday with bolstering Ukraine\u2019s air defences, as worries grow over Russia\u2019s campaign to destabilise Kyiv\u2019s European backers. Moscow has taken advantage of Ukraine running low on US-built air defence missiles to pummel the country, while Kyiv has hit back against Russian infrastructure with its own long-range strikes. A barrage of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n