EU defence ministers gather in Wicklow this morning to kick off a week of informal yet high-level gatherings, following a summer marked by a surge in security incidents across the continent.
At centre-stage this morning is the expectation, as our correspondent Shona Murray reports from the ground in Ireland, that Berlin will formally blame Russia for a suspected drone attack targeting a Ukrainian cargo aircraft carrying military supplies at Leipzig/Halle airport in early August. Reports suggest an explosives-laden drone, apparently intended to detonate, was found near the aircraft.
Speaking to Shona in an interview, Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard offered a stark assessment of the threat.
‘Most serious’ security situation since WWII: “This is extremely serious. We are in the most serious security situation since the Second World War,” she said. “We take the drone incidents in Leipzig extremely seriously, and we are in close contact with our German friends.”
“I really don't like the term hybrid threat because it sounds like an environmentally friendly car when it's something completely different,” she added.
