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STRASBOURG: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday said Europe must ramp up its defenses to deter Russia’s “hybrid warfare,” after a catalogue of air incursions, cyberattacks and damage to undersea cables.
“These incidents are calculated to linger in the twilight of deniability. This is not random harassment. It is a coherent and escalating campaign,” the European Commission head said in a speech to EU lawmakers.
“Two incidents are coincidence, but three, five, 10 — this is a deliberate and targeted grey zone campaign against Europe, and Europe must respond,” she said.
EU countries Poland, Estonia and Romania have recently been rattled by Russian air incursions, while unidentified drones have been spotted in Denmark, Germany and Belgium.
European countries have already increased defense spending to post-Cold War highs in the face of Moscow’s war in Ukraine and doubts over US support under President Donald Trump.
Now the EU is seeking to hammer out plans for joint projects that could be built by the 27-nation bloc — including a “wall” of anti-drone defenses.
“We must not only react. We must deter because if we hesitate to act, the grey zone will only expand,” von der Leyen said.
“The founding mission of the European Union is to preserve peace, and today that means having the capacity to deter aggression and provocation.”
EU leaders will seek at a summit in Brussels later this month to agree on a “road map” aimed at getting the bloc ready to ward off threats from Russia in the coming years.
“This will not only set common objectives, but also very concrete milestones and timelines on the way to 2030 because we all know only what gets measured gets really done,” von der Leyen said.
The commission president insisted that tackling “Russia’s hybrid war” requires “a completely new mindset for all of us.”
“The choice before us is very simple. We either can shy away and watch Russian threats escalate, or we meet them with unity, deterrence and resolve,” von der Leyen said.

MADRID: Spanish emergency services have recovered the bodies of four people from beneath the rubble of a six-story building that collapsed in central Madrid while being refurbished into a hotel, local authorities said on Wednesday.
“It is with deep sadness that we confirm that Madrid firefighters have recovered the bodies of the people who went missing after the collapse,” Mayor Jose Luis Almeida wrote on X.
The victims have been identified as three men aged between 30 and 50 from Ecuador, Mali and Guinea-Conakry and employed at the site as construction workers, as well as a 30-year-old woman, the renovation project’s architect.
Their remains were found early on Wednesday, nearly 15 hours after the collapse of the building’s interior structure that left its facade intact, in a search-and-rescue operation in which police and firefighters deployed drones and sniffer dogs. Three other construction workers were injured.
One construction worker named Mikhail was pumping concrete into the building’s lower floors and was outside when the collapse occurred. He said he saw a large cloud of dust and immediately sprinted away.
“I was the first to run, I didn’t care about anything else. I’ll save my life first and, if I can, save others later,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
According to Madrid’s online registry of buildings under construction the property was built in 1965. It underwent two technical inspections in 2012 and 2022 and was classified as “unfavorable” due to “the general condition of the facade, exterior, partition walls, roof, roof terraces and plumbing and sewage system.”
The former office building, located in an area of downtown Madrid popular with tourists near the opera house and royal palace, was being converted into a four-star hotel by developer Rehbilita, according to information on its website. Rehbilita did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The property belongs to Saudi-based fund RSR, a real estate investor specializing in high-end hotels and tourist apartments in Spain and Portugal. RSR bought it for 24.5 million euros ($28.5 million) in 2022.
Its renovation, approved by municipal authorities in December 2024, was expected to last two years. ($1 = 0.8613 euros)