By Christian Esch,Christina Hebel,Markus Becker,Matthias Gebauer,Paul-Anton Krüger,Sebastian Fischer,Severin Weiland

Copyright spiegel

Von der Leyen left no doubt about the fact that she sees Putin as the greatest threat to those values. The drone incursion, she said, was a “reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland’s and Europe’s air space.” Von der Leyen then added: “Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland.” The gathered lawmakers stood and applauded.

The Commission president also announced plans to make 6 billion euros available for a partnership with Ukraine to produce drones. The money is to come from a loan that will be repaid with interest generated from frozen Russian assets. “This is Russia’s war. And it is Russia that should pay.”

Von der Leyen also proposed a new program for providing military support to Ukraine, intended to give the country a qualitative military advantage. The eastern flank of the EU must also be further strengthened, she said. “We must invest in real-time space surveillance,” she said, “so that no movement of forces goes unseen.” Beyond that, she intoned, it is time to listen to the Baltic nations and build a “drone wall.” Doing so, she said, “is not an abstract ambition. It is the bedrock of credible defense.”

Von der Leyen struck a forceful tone and chose strong words – perhaps also to conceal Europe’s uncertainty and underlying unease.

In Berlin and other European capitals, there is likely some hope that Russian drones flying over the border into Poland may also be enough to convince U.S. President Trump to change his tune. That Trump will abandon his dream of negotiating a deal with Putin and instead strengthen sanctions against Russia to force Moscow to the negotiating table.

Behind the scenes, the European Commission is working on new sanctions against Russia. EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan was recently in Washington for talks, which apparently went well according to sources in the EU. Washington, they said, is prepared to increase the pressure on Russia by upping the pressure on China and India, both of which have become important trading partners for Moscow. Experts from the EU and the U.S. continue to work toward ironing out the details.

But whether the U.S. will really impose stronger sanctions against China and India remains to be seen, and if so, when. Trump has expressed surprise about the incident in Poland. “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” Trump wrote on his network Truth Social.

It was Mark Rutte of all people, the NATO secretary general, who laid bare the West’s uncertainty about how to move forward. “Stop it!” Rutte said in a comment intended for Putin, and it sounded almost as though he was begging. Putin, Rutte said, shouldn’t just stop violating NATO airspace, but the entire war in Ukraine.

For now, though, that is nothing more than wishful thinking.