{"id":1180894,"date":"2026-09-01T16:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180894\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:18:17","slug":"after-deadly-summer-in-ukraine-and-gaza-eu-defence-ministers-refuse-patriot-missiles-and-sidestep-israel-sanctions-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180894\/","title":{"rendered":"After deadly summer in Ukraine and Gaza, EU defence ministers refuse Patriot missiles and sidestep Israel sanctions \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greece and Spain declined to send Ukraine air-defence missiles while Ireland was alone in calling out Israel, in the EU\u2019s first defence brainstorm after a lethal summer in Ukraine and Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russian airstrikes killed 400 Ukrainian civilians in July because Kyiv did not have enough interceptor missiles, but Greece and Spain declined to open their stockpiles at an EU defence ministers\u2019 meeting in the Druids Glen golf club near Dublin on Tuesday (1 September).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere were calls and talks about these missiles but there was, unfortunately, no concrete success today regarding this,\u201d said EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, without naming the two holdouts, the way some ministers, such as Dutch arms-procurement minister Derk Boswijk did earlier the same day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPatriot missiles about to expire [by Nato standards] should be sent to Ukraine,\u201d said Kallas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Greek defence minister Nikos Dendias also told press in Ireland that Athens needed its anti-air capacity to deal with \u201crevisionism in the Eastern Mediterranean\u201d, alluding to Turkey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several ministers voiced alarm that Russia was using \u201cincreasingly kinetic hybrid attacks\u201d, in Kallas\u2019 words, on Nato and EU territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russia was suspected of plotting a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/germany-blame-moscow-airport-drone-incident-tuesday-bild-reports-2026-09-01\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/germany-blame-moscow-airport-drone-incident-tuesday-bild-reports-2026-09-01\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> drone attack at Leipzig in Germany<\/a> in August, in the latest example of ever-more violent sabotage plots inside Western Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;What we&#8217;ve seen is that Russian [intelligence] services don&#8217;t have any limitations in their toolbox &#8230; even up to killing people, they don&#8217;t have any<br \/>limitations,&#8221; said Estonian defence minister Hanno Pevkur at the informal talks in Ireland on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kallas said the next round of EU sanctions on Russia, expected in October, would blacklist hundreds more Russians, stop Western technology reaching president Vladimir Putin&#8217;s arms factories, and halt more shadow fleet oil tankers funding his war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turning to the Middle East, defence ministers discussed Austrian, Irish, Spanish, and European Commission proposals to send EU-flagged civilian and military peacekeepers to Lebanon, after a UN-mandated mission, Unifil, <a href=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\/news\/security-council-extends-unifils-mandate-resolution-2790-2025\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\/news\/security-council-extends-unifils-mandate-resolution-2790-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is forced out on 31 December<\/a> due to Israeli and US pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greece and Spain declined to send Ukraine air-defence missiles while Ireland was alone in calling out Israel, in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1180895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,218484,218481,221969,274262,274260,221967,218479,218482,274261,221968,218480,218483],"class_list":["post-1180894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-identifier24","tag-identifier4308","tag-identifier4328","tag-identifier4500","tag-nameireland","tag-nameisrael","tag-namerussia","tag-nameukraine","tag-termcodeireland","tag-termcodeisrael","tag-termcoderussia","tag-termcodeukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117196692129019311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}