On a united response to recent Russian violations of the EU Member States’ airspace and critical infrastructure

B100437/2025

European Parliament resolution on a united response to recent Russian violations of the EU Member States’ airspace and critical infrastructure

(2025/2901(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Ukraine and on Russia, in particular those adopted since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula on 19 February 2014,

– having regard to the Council document of 4 June 2025 entitled ‘Call for common actions in response to Global Satellite Navigation Systems (GNSS) jamming and spoofing threats’, which outlines proposals and responses for addressing GNSS interference,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas Russia has been waging an illegal, unprovoked and unjustified full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine since 24 February 2022, in a blatant and flagrant violation of the UN Charter and of the fundamental principles of international law and international humanitarian law as established by the Geneva Conventions of 1949; whereas this constitutes a direct threat to Europe’s security and stability;

B. whereas in recent years, Russia has repeatedly engaged in acts of hybrid warfare inside EU territory, including cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns and electoral interference, weaponisation of energy and sabotage of critical infrastructure, as well as in military provocations, including violations of airspace by fighter jets and long-range strike drones;

C. whereas in recent weeks, Russian incursions close to and into European airspace have intensified, affecting several EU Member States and NATO allies situated along the EU’s eastern and northern borders;

D. whereas on 19 September 2025, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, disregarded communications from NATO F-35 pilots scrambled from the Baltic Air Policing Mission at Ämari Air Base, and were ultimately escorted back into international airspace;

E. whereas on 25 September 2025, Hungarian Gripen jets were scrambled from Lithuania to intercept a formation of five Russian fighter jets that were flying near NATO airspace without complying with international flight safety regulations; whereas the aircraft were visually identified west of the Latvian coast before being escorted out of NATO airspace;

F. whereas on 9 September 2025, around 20 Russian drones that had been launched from within Russian territory violated Polish airspace over the course of seven hours; whereas three of these drones were shot down by Polish and NATO defences; whereas in early July 2025, Polish investigators revealed that wreckage from Russian drones shot down in Ukraine contained 4G modems fitted with SIM cards from Polish and Lithuanian mobile operators, which demonstrates that Russia is testing network connectivity in Europe in a deliberate strategy to prepare for operations within NATO airspace;

G. whereas on 13 September 2025, a Russian drone violated Romanian airspace near the Danube River for 50 minutes during strikes on nearby Ukrainian targets;

H. whereas both Poland and Estonia invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty in the space of a week in response to unequivocal Russian provocations;

I. whereas European NATO allies decided to launch an ‘Eastern Flank Watch’ in response to the latest Russian provocations, underscoring the EU and NATO’s commitment to collective defence against conventional and hybrid threats and enhancing the security and stability of the region; whereas the President of the Commission mentioned the Eastern Flank Watch in her 2025 State of the Union speech;

J. whereas following the informal meeting of the European Council on 1 October 2025, Council President António Costa underlined that Europe’s borders will only be secure if all of Europe’s borders are secure, calling for a comprehensive 360-degree approach to European security and border protection;

K. whereas between 22 September and 6 October 2025, incursions by drones of unknown origin disrupted critical infrastructure in Denmark, Norway, Germany and Belgium, including international airports and military bases; whereas NATO has launched operations to strengthen the security of Europe’s eastern and northern regions, namely the Baltic Sentry Operation, initiated in January 2025 to safeguard critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and enhance maritime situational awareness in response to sabotage incidents attributed to Russian hybrid warfare, and the Eastern Sentry Operation, launched on 12 September 2025 to bolster NATO’s posture along the entire eastern flank, reinforce capabilities and strengthen deterrence and defence, including through effective air defence;

L. whereas the violation of national airspace is a serious breach of sovereignty and international law;

M. whereas the EU is an unprecedented political and institutional project founded on the values of peace, democracy, solidarity and the rule of law, and has achieved peace for all its Member States since its foundation;

1. Expresses its full solidarity with Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Romania and Estonia and with all other Member States exposed to Russia’s military provocations and acts of hybrid warfare;

2. Condemns in the strongest terms Russia’s military and hybrid provocations against the EU and its Member States, in particular the incursions of drones and fighter jets into EU airspace; declares that Russia bears full and unequivocal responsibility for the actions that took place in Polish, Estonian and Romanian airspace, which are escalatory, carry the risk of miscalculation and endanger lives; believes that these actions are part of a pattern of clear escalation of hostile and aggressive actions close to or within EU borders, which also include multiple acts of hybrid warfare, such as attacks on critical infrastructure, assassinations, cyberattacks and electoral interference; believes that these actions carry the risk of miscalculation and endanger lives, and constitute a deliberate test of the EU’s readiness and resolve and of NATO’s deterrence and operational readiness; rejects any dismissal of such actions as accidental, given their scale and their repeated occurrence across multiple Member States; states, therefore, that the Russian Federation poses a deliberate, systematic and ongoing threat to the security, resilience and sovereignty of the EU and its Member States, and that urgent, decisive and unified EU action must be taken in response, closely coordinated with NATO;

3. Reiterates that protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all Member States is a fundamental principle of the EU, and underlines the need for an immediate, firm, united and proportionate response to protect the EU’s citizens and critical infrastructure; urges the Member States, in this regard, to employ all military and non-military tools necessary to defend the EU and its citizens and territory and deter all threats from all directions, in full compliance with international law; calls on the Member States to review, in coordination with NATO allies, the rules of engagement for all types of threats to ensure they are adequate to respond to the most innovative threats;

4. Underlines the fact that the EU and its Member States remain firmly committed to the rules-based international order and to all diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine, in full respect of its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, thus contributing to the security of the whole continent; calls, in this regard, for the Member States and the EU to closely and effectively coordinate their diplomatic initiatives in multilateral organisations, including the United Nations, in order to counter Russia’s systematic breaches of international law and to strengthen collective efforts to uphold peace, security and international justice:

5. Calls on the Member States to quickly set up joint projects, starting with the Eastern Flank Watch, for an effective layered air defence system for the EU that is capable of detecting and intercepting all incoming airborne threats from outside the EU; underlines that multi-layered defence is essential for protecting citizens and critical infrastructure, but also for deterring threats and, ultimately, for safeguarding the EU’s role as a global actor upholding peace, human rights and the rule of law;

6. Acknowledges the increasingly prominent role of drones in modern warfare and their significant impact on battlefield dynamics, as well as their role as a tool for hybrid warfare for both state and non-state actors, and underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive and adaptive strategy to counter, in particular, evolving military and hybrid drone threats; welcomes, in this regard, all concrete projects intended to fill capability gaps in the areas of drone and anti-drone warfare, create a multi-layered, deep zone of technologically advanced systems with interoperable anti-drone capabilities for detection, tracking and neutralisation, and develop the capacity to engage ground targets leveraging drone technology for precision strikes, supported by the necessary ground-, cyber- and space-based assets; urges the Member States and the Commission to urgently work on such projects and communicate a clear timeline for their implementation, and invites them to consider using the European Defence Projects of Common Interest framework to set up the projects; recognises the need for cross-sector collaboration between the defence, cybersecurity and research communities in order to develop holistic strategies that integrate the latest digital and cyber defence technologies; highlights the need to expand such capabilities to cover all EU territory, particularly the areas around critical infrastructure and populated areas; notes the ambitious deadline mentioned by Commissioner Andrius Kubilius for the completion of a ‘European drone wall’;

7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to urgently increase investments in security and defence in order to close all capability gaps, establish strong deterrence and provide adequate support to Ukraine, ensuring that the EU and its Member States are equipped to address all threats, from hybrid and cyber threats to conventional military challenges, and that planning, research, development, procurement and management of capabilities are all done jointly and through a European lens; stresses, therefore, the importance of using these investments to stimulate joint action at European level, including with Ukraine, in order to improve the efficiency of public spending, enhance interoperability and boost the EU’s strategic autonomy, instead of perpetuating the present state of market fragmentation, divergent and incompatible capabilities, wasteful investments and external dependencies;

8. Calls on the Commission to adapt its defence and defence industrial policy instruments to ensure that they are fit for purpose, addressing first and foremost the EU’s pressing capability gaps, including against acts of hybrid warfare, and ensuring that planning, research, development, procurement and management of capabilities are increasingly done through a European lens; further calls on the Commission to align their work programmes with the capability planning exercises of the EU and its Member States;

9. Calls on the Member States to urgently accelerate the expansion of European drone and anti-drone development and production capacities, including through the Security Action For Europe (SAFE) instrument; calls on the Commission to propose an EU drones package focusing on drone and anti-drone systems and auxiliary capabilities, which should contain a strategy to use existing instruments to stimulate research and development and the localisation of critical supply chains and a regulation on the use of drones in civilian and military contexts that is fit for the present threat scenario; calls for increased investments focusing on the integration of next-generation digital technologies into drone and anti-drone defence systems to enhance their resilience, scalability and efficiency;

10. Urges the EU and its Member States to set out operational procedures and mechanisms for the event that a Member State triggers Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union, and to ensure coherence between Article 42(7) and NATO equivalents;

11. Underlines that these or further hostile acts by the Russian Federation will not deter the EU and its Member States from their enduring commitment to continuing to support Ukraine in its legitimate defence against Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression; recalls that Ukraine’s security contributes to that of Europe as a whole and stresses Ukraine’s inherent right to self-defence against Russia’s brutal war of aggression;

12. Reiterates its call on all Member States to immediately provide additional military assistance and to engage in the joint procurement of additional capabilities for Ukraine, in particular ammunition for air defence and artillery; urges restrictions to be lifted on the use of Western weapons systems delivered to Ukraine against military targets on Russian territory as these are used to launch attacks against Ukraine’s population and critical civilian infrastructure and, increasingly, to launch drones that enter the EU’s airspace; believes that the outcome of the war and the stance taken by the international community will play a crucial role in influencing future aggressive action by Russia in Europe and beyond;

13. Calls on the Member States to actively cooperate with Ukraine and establish synergies with it, particularly in the fields of air and missile defence and drone and counter-drone warfare, acknowledging its groundbreaking operational expertise and advanced capabilities, and thus strengthen both European and Ukrainian defensive capabilities; supports bilateral and regional initiatives in these fields, such as the one set up between Romania and Ukraine with regard to drones, as a way to harness Ukraine’s expertise and strengthen Europe’s collective security;

14. Further calls on the Member States to formalise cooperation and set up structures to facilitate the exchange of lessons learned, technical knowledge and best practices, including within the framework of the EU and NATO; recommends, in particular, establishing structured mechanisms to facilitate ongoing knowledge-sharing on drone and counter-drone technologies and in the area of cybersecurity; recommends the establishment of structured mechanisms for ongoing knowledge-sharing, particularly in the rapidly evolving fields of digital defence and cyber capabilities; invites the Member States to consider engaging in training missions in Ukraine in order to fully absorb the expertise and innovative techniques possessed by the Ukrainian armed forces;

15. Urges the Commission and the Member States and their defence industries to support, invest in and partner with the Ukrainian defence industry in order to make use of the full potential of production capacities in Ukraine in the most efficient way, in line with the ‘Danish model’; further urges the Member States and their defence industries to make additional investments, set up joint ventures, and develop partnerships with Ukraine for the joint development of defence products in the EU, particularly in the areas of drones, counter-drone technologies and long-range strike capabilities;

16. Urges all beneficiary Member States to devote a significant part of their SAFE Defence Investment Plans to assistance for Ukraine in the forms of procurement for, in and from Ukraine; highlights the advantages of investing in battle-tested, effective capabilities for the effective defence of both Ukraine and the Union;

17. Welcomes NATO’s decisive and proportionate response to the recent airspace violations by Russian military aircraft and drones, noting that this response involved a careful assessment of the threats posed and a calibrated reaction to ensure the protection of European citizens, territory and critical infrastructure without unnecessary escalation;

18. Welcomes the launch of NATO-led operations to strengthen security in Europe’s eastern and northern regions, including the Baltic Sentry Operation to protect critical undersea infrastructure and enhance maritime situational awareness, and the Eastern Sentry Operation to bolster NATO’s posture along the eastern flank, strengthen capabilities and ensure effective deterrence and air defence; recognises the need for similar efforts in the Black Sea region, including the EU’s strategic approach and the establishment of the Black Sea Maritime Security Hub, in order to enhance maritime safety and security for Member States bordering both maritime areas;

19. Calls for increasingly close cooperation between NATO and the EU to take advantage of the complementary roles of both organisations to strengthen Europe’s defence and deterrence; underlines the need for a strong, precisely defined, European pillar within NATO, able to act autonomously from, and in complementarity with, NATO, turning the transatlantic alliance into a more equal partnership and providing the Member States with an increased range of actions for territorial defence;

20. Calls for enhanced coordination, unity and solidarity between the Member States and their allies, including within NATO, for the monitoring, interception and neutralisation of hostile drones, including through joint training and exercises and the exchange of operational intelligence;

21. Calls for the EU and the Member States to adopt a comprehensive approach to defence, recognising that security extends beyond military assets and encompasses defence against acts of hybrid warfare; stresses that unless the vulnerabilities undermining citizens’ trust in institutions and democracy are addressed, the EU risks being unstable and weak despite its military strength; urges the development of defence investment plans in a way that also strengthens social cohesion within and among regions and Member States;

22. Urges the Commission and the Member States to include responses to acts of hybrid warfare in their complete programme for a genuine European defence;

23. Reiterates the importance of enhancing collective resilience against evolving hybrid threats and cross-border challenges in the protection of citizens and critical infrastructure, in particular through enhanced cybersecurity and underwater surveillance capabilities; supports stronger coordination and capacity-building via EU instruments such as the Hybrid Threats Centre of Excellence, rescEU and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre to ensure the rapid deployment of expertise, the continuous monitoring of threats and comprehensive preparedness planning across Member States, with a specific focus on infrastructure exposed to targeted hybrid attacks; urges the Member States to finance the establishment of the Cyberdefence Coordination Centre to provide the EU with a platform for joint situational awareness and intelligence sharing; stresses the importance of fostering innovation in research and development, particularly in areas such as autonomous systems, data combination and cybersecurity to ensure that the EU’s defence capabilities remain ahead of emerging threats, including hybrid threats;

24. Urges the Commission, in close coordination with Member States, to take immediate and concrete measures to address GNSS interference, including deliberate jamming and spoofing, in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions by strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure, enhancing the protection of civil aviation and maritime safety, developing more robust satellite navigation services that are resistant to interference and establishing action plans across domains such as space, aviation, maritime, and telecommunications to avoid duplication of efforts;

25. Welcomes the Member States’ actions against the Russian ‘shadow fleet’; urges further action against the shadow fleet using the full scale of legal possibilities to halt, obstruct or impede its operations, highlighting the risks posed to critical infrastructure through sabotage or unsafe maritime practices and its potential recent involvement in the launch of drones targeting critical infrastructure; urges coordinated sanctions by the EU and international partners against all shadow fleet vessels, and more effective implementation and enforcement of existing sanctions; reiterates its calls for the publication of a comprehensive list of all shadow fleet vessels:

26. Calls for the EU institutions and the Member States to engage in strategic communication to guarantee that citizens have reliable and trusted channels to inform themselves about risks and protective measures, and to ensure that disinformation campaigns seeking to exploit these incidents are countered;

27. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the President, Government and Parliament of the Russian Federation.