After a virtual meeting with several EU defense ministers, the European Commission on Friday voiced its support for developing a "drone wall" along the bloc's eastern borders to strengthen Europe's defense capabilities, following a series of unidentified drone incursions.

EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius stated that participants agreed the drone wall should feature "advanced detection, tracking, and interception capabilities." It will form the core of the "Eastern Flank Watch", a defense initiative that also includes "ground defenses such as anti-mobility systems, maritime security for the Baltic and Black Seas, and space-based situational awareness".

"The Eastern Flank Watch, with the 'Drone Wall' as its core, will serve all of Europe," said Kubilius in Helsinki after the meeting. "We agreed to move from concept to concrete actions."

The concept of a "drone wall" was first proposed by Lithuania in 2023. By May 2024, six NATO countries had agreed to join forces on the project. In March of this year, an Estonian-Lithuanian proposal to build a cross-border drone wall failed to secure funding from the European Commission.

This month, the European Commission shifted its stance following a series of unidentified drone incursions into EU airspace.

On Sept. 9-10, drones were detected entering Polish airspace 19 times, identified by Poland and NATO as Russian. Three days later, Romania reported a Russian drone breaching its airspace.

This week, unidentified drones were spotted across Scandinavian countries, leading to the temporary closure of airspace over several airports, both civilian and military. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen admitted that the origin of these drones had not yet been identified, but hinted that the Kremlin might be responsible.

Russia denied all accusations of deliberate drone incursions. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that it was ready to hold consultations with Poland on the drone incident, but Poland refused, saying it was "not ready." Russia's Embassy in Bucharest pointed out that no evidence had been presented linking the alleged drones to any specific country, dismissing Romania's protest as "baseless and contrived."

On Tuesday, Kubilius told Euractiv that Europe lacks the capabilities to detect drones and needs to learn from Ukraine's military, which he praised on Friday for having "invaluable, battle-tested expertise."

In early September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in her State of the Union speech, advocated for Europe to respond to the call of Baltic countries to build the "drone wall" and pledged 6 billion euros (about 7.3 billion dollars) for a Drone Alliance with Ukraine.

At Friday's meeting, the EU defense chief outlined the Commission's next steps: to "define a detailed technical roadmap with national experts", "mobilize Europe's defense industry", and "build a comprehensive EU financial toolbox to make this shield a reality."

The virtual meeting hosted by the EU Defense Commissioner gathered the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas and defense ministers from Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Denmark, Hungary and Slovakia also participated. A separate session later in the day was joined by Ukraine's minister of defense, with NATO participating as an observer.

"Russia is testing the EU and NATO. And our response must be firm, united, and immediate," Kubilius told a press conference on Friday.

In response, the chief of the Department of European Issues at the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the "drone wall" plan as "hysteria" and viewed it as a pretext for EU members to justify increasing military spending, Sputnik reported on Saturday.

Copenhagen will host an informal EU leaders' meeting next week and the "drone wall" could be on the agenda. According to Politico, von der Leyen is expected to propose funding options for the project during the meeting.