The European Union is at risk of a direct attack from Russia as soon as 2028 if it fails to shore up its own defence, the bloc’s foreign affairs tsar Kaja Kallas has claimed.
Citing unnamed nation-state level secret service sources, the senior Eurocrat insisted in a January 22 speech to the European Defence Agency that the Kremlin was interested in launching attacks on EU soil in the hope of testing the bloc’s defences.
“Many of our national intelligence services are giving us information that Russia could test the EU’s defence readiness in three to five years,” she said at the event in Brussels.
“Europe’s failure to invest in military capabilities also sends a dangerous signal to the aggressor.”
The Estonian politician went on to challenge those who had accused her of being too hostile to Russia in the past, arguing that her wariness of the country and its President Vladimir Putin was justified.
“People say I’m a ‘Russia hawk’. I think I’m simply realistic about Russia,” she said.
“Russia poses an existential threat to our security today, tomorrow and for as long as we underinvest in our defence.”
Kallas also repeated calls for a further integration of EU defence infrastructure, saying the the development of common weaponry systems would help the bloc to build up its military resistance more quickly.
“We need to consolidate our defence industry and develop common weapons systems,” she said.
“Our European defence industry could then utilise the same military systems and help member states’ militaries become more interoperable … the EU should also work towards establishing a ‘Single Market for Defence’.
“Russia’s defence industry is churning out tanks, artillery shells and glide bombs faster than we can match. This is a heavily militarised country, spending over a third of its national budget on the military, three times what it spent before the war.
“We must be realistic about the scale of this threat,” she added.
COMMENT: Modest ambitions suit the modest resources provided to the EU’s new defence commissioner, writes Karl Pfefferkorn. https://t.co/6oYen2Ox4F
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 21, 2025
