BRUSSELS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The European Union on Wednesday weighed how best to respond to an attempted drone attack at a German airport blamed on Russia but struggled to find new ways to meet the challenge without resorting to military means.<\/p>\n
The German government said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the failed attack at Leipzig\/Halle Airport on Aug. 4 using a drone laden with explosives and announced it would shut down a Russian consulate among other measures.<\/p>\n
The nature of the incident and its attribution to Russia set a new benchmark. The drone was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane, and the device was defused. The airport is a major international freight hub used for providing support to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear that it has all the hallmarks of state-sponsored terrorism. The question is: What do we do about this,\u201d EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters before chairing a meeting of the bloc\u2019s foreign ministers in Ireland. They discussed sanctions, visa restrictions and shutting Russian consulates, among other measures. <\/p>\n
French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot said France summoned Russia\u2019s envoy to \u201cprotest strongly\u201d and wants to impose sanctions on more of the Kremlin\u2019s shadow fleet ships.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t allow an act of such gravity without consequences,\u201d Barrot said.<\/p>\n
A struggle to find more effective options<\/p>\n
The EU has slapped almost two dozen packages of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, hitting more than 3,000 officials, oligarchs and entities including banks, energy companies and drone makers. The EU already was preparing to impose more travel bans and asset freezes on another 1,600 people, Kallas said.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of ships making up the shadow fleet illicitly shipping oil to fuel Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s war effort have been targeted too. Russian diplomats routinely have been summoned around Europe, even expelled.<\/p>\n
Russia sometimes has seemed immune to such measures. The challenge is how to respond effectively without going too far. EU member nations, many of them NATO allies, remain cautious about being dragged into open conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.<\/p>\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the incident \u201cmarks a new escalation on European Union soil\u201d and that her services \u201care looking at ways to cut deeper into Russia\u2019s war chest.\u201d She did not elaborate.<\/p>\n
Not at war, but not at peace either<\/p>\n
Germany insisted it was \u201cnot at war\u201d but had become a \u201cdaily target\u201d of the Kremlin\u2019s hybrid campaign. Putin dismissed the allegations, saying Berlin wants to distract from its own failings and dissatisfaction among voters. Any proof being offered \u201chas been planted,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n
But German Foreign Minister Johan Wadephul said Berlin carefully had prepared its response \u201cand now Russia must live with these consequences.\u201d He called on Russia \u201cto show that it is also ready for reasonable talks and negotiations, particularly regarding the situation in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Germany\u2019s envoy, Bernd Finke. It said he was told Russia \u201ccategorically rejects the completely trumped-up accusations leveled by Berlin regarding Russia\u2019s involvement in the alleged incident at the Leipzig airport.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe actions of the German authorities will be met with a harsh response,\u201d a ministry statement said, without providing details about what that might entail.<\/p>\n
Moscow has been widely accused by Western officials of running a years-long campaign of sabotage and disruption with the aim of undermining support for Ukraine and destabilizing European nations.<\/p>\n
The failed attack in Germany is one of several worrying incidents reported across Europe. Recent ones include a fire this week at a major drone-making factory in Poland. Russia is suspected in many cases. There also have been drone incursions in Estonia and Latvia resulting from Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Concern about Russian attempts to divide the EU<\/p>\n
Spain publicly has accused Russia, along with Israel, of using disinformation to incite migrants to cross from Morocco into its Ceuta exclave in northern Africa. Spanish Foreign Minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares accused some of his EU partners of echoing that fake information, without naming them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of people outside the European Union that want to divide us, to make us weak,\u201d he told reporters, clearly linking Spain\u2019s migration challenges to the incidents in Germany and elsewhere along Europe\u2019s eastern flank. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe land borders of the south of the EU are as important as the eastern borders,\u201d Albares said.<\/p>\n
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband also attended the EU meeting, along with officials from Ukraine, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see an attempt by Russia to divide us in Europe and to deter us from our support for Ukraine,\u201d Miliband told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis attempt will fail. It will fail because we will stand up to Russian aggression. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends in Ukraine,\u201d he said, for \u201cas long as it takes for them to prevail in this conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some ministers also raised the idea of using billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to help meet more of Ukraine\u2019s military and economic needs. Attempts to do so last year failed as Belgium, where most of the assets are held, refused to be exposed to Russian retaliation alone.<\/p>\n
Cook writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSELS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The European Union on Wednesday weighed how best to respond to an attempted drone attack at a German…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1183465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2574,34537,41264,2000,299,5187,1699,1824,14965,19968,99540,332,108036,104,29738,657,771],"class_list":["post-1183464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-berlin","tag-challenge","tag-drone-attack","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-germany","tag-incident","tag-official","tag-reporter","tag-russia","tag-sanction","tag-spain","tag-support","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117204623401202869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183464","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=1183464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1183465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}