The Swiss defence minister described the intrusion into Polish airspace as a “violation of the territorial integrity of a European state”.
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According to Swiss Defence Minister Martin Pfister, the intrusion of Russian drones into Polish airspace currently has ” no concrete impact” on Switzerland. “However, it shows how unstable the situation in Europe is,” said Pfister in an interview.
Europe’s security is threatened beyond Ukraine, said Pfister in an interview published in Sunday’s SonntagsZeitung newspaper.
He described the intrusion into Polish airspace as a “violation of the territorial integrity of a European state”.
“The reactions of the European states show that they are taking the threat very seriously,” said the minister, because with such actions, the risk of escalation increases.
Identical scenario unlikely
According to the government, an identical scenario for Switzerland is not very likely, if only because of its geographical location. If it did happen, however, the Swiss air defence system would not be able to repel such drones, said Pfister.
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“We do have air defence systems that can shoot down drones at close range,” he said, “but Switzerland is waiting for medium- and long-range systems to be delivered. We know that the Patriot system, in particular, is experiencing delays”. As a result of its support for Ukraine, the US Department of Defence is giving new priority to the delivery of Patriot systems, so Switzerland should only receive later production runs.
Cooperation with neighbouring countries
The defence minister pointed out that Switzerland’s intelligence service has long been indicating that the threat is set to worsen: “There is a risk that security in Switzerland will be much more threatened in the next five years than we imagine today.”
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On the subject of drones, Pfister also referred to closer cooperation with neighbouring countries. Drones could be combated more effectively if they were detected early and well before the national border, he said. Cooperation should go as far as possible, but only to the point where Switzerland can still decide autonomously on the use of its resources.
During a Russian air attack on Ukraine last Tuesday night, a large number of drones also penetrated Polish airspace, and hence NATO airspace. The Polish air force and other NATO allies shot down a number of Russian drones for the first time. Since then, Poland has received increased support from its NATO allies. Switzerland is not a member of NATO. On Saturday evening, Romania in turn claimed that its airspace had been violated by a drone during a Russian attack on infrastructure in neighbouring Ukraine.
Translated from French with DeepL/gw
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