Zelenskyy invita l’Europa a sviluppare la difesa aerea dopo l’ultimo attacco russo

“On Europe”

…he speaks of “joint defense” over “European skies”. So essentially he wants air defense troops of other countries to be deployed to Ukraine. I’m amazed by his inability to understand that troops deployment in Ukraine just won’t happen.

Of course the European leaders will “strongly agree” with such statements, nothing will actually happen, and we are off to the next insanity

Does this involve a bunch of meetings, dinners, and photoshoots? If not, EU bureaucrats won’t be interested.

Huh? There is one though:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Sky_Shield_Initiative#Capability

It’ll take years and will cost lots of money, which countries aren’t willing to really spend that easily as it’d end up in very few pockets:

Short range: Skyranger 30 – Germany, Rheinmetal

Medium range: primarily IRIS-T SLM, Germany, Diehl / Sweden, Saab

Long range: MIM-104 Patriot, USA, Raytheon / Lockheed Martin / Boeing

Very long range (exoatmospheric): Arrow 3, Israel, Israel Aerospace Industries / USA, Boeing

And if we’re thinking whole Europe, we’re talking hundreds billions of EUR. With not only so much of the cake going to so few companies, from even fewer countries and some of them outside of EU is kinda…

**President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Europe to push forward with an air defense umbrella after Russia again** [**bombarded**](https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/news-zelenskyi-tramp-putin/33531764.html) **the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya, injuring at least 13 people, including two children.**

Zelenskyy said in a social media post on September 16 that Russian rockets “struck deliberately to terrorize our people,” damaging “many residential buildings” in the process.

He added that since the beginning of September, more than 3,500 drones and nearly 190 missiles, along with more than 2,500 aerial bombs, have been launched by Moscow at targets inside Ukraine, as well as “provocations against our partners.”

“This is precisely the kind of aerial terror against which Ukraine is calling for joint defense — so that no one has to scramble combat aircraft in haste and feel Russia’s pressure on their borders,” Zelenskyy wrote.

“Now is the time to implement the joint protection of our European skies with a multilayered air defense system. All the technologies for this are already in place. What is needed are investments and determination — strong actions and decisions from all our partners.”

The issue of defending against Russia’s drone capability, which has risen dramatically over the more than three years it has been fighting against Ukraine, has become a major talking point after more than a dozen Russian drones made an incursion into Poland last week, followed by another violation of NATO airspace by a Russian drone in Romania.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s annual state of the European Union speech this week made it clear the bloc needs to up its drone defense when she committed to a 6 billion euro loan to enter a “drone alliance” with Ukraine.

She floated an “Eastern Flank Watch” that she said will provide “real-time space surveillance” to track all aerial movement from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Von der Leyen also committed to building “a drone wall” — something her own commission initially refused to fund when Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania asked for European cash earlier this year for such a venture.

There are few details about all this just yet: no concrete budget figures, precise geographical scope, or timeline other than that the European Commission is expected to present a roadmap with new common defense projects in October.

“In these border countries we need to create a ‘drone wall’ together with Ukraine and include Ukraine in this project,” European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius told the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform on September 15.

Earlier on September 16 Zelenskyy told Sky News in an [**interview**](https://news.sky.com/story/zelenskyy-makes-demand-of-trump-and-issues-warning-to-nato-13431947) that a “clear position” is needed from US President Donald Trump on sanctions against Russia and for security guarantees for Ukraine.

Just be smart for once and make sure it will also protect against rockets and US-weapons, we’re gonna need it sooner or later.