Foreign
“Millions Of Drones” Needed For European Defense, Says EU
EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius says Europeans will require millions of drones to create an “army” and they need to start preparing now.
The European Union’s defence commissioner has warned Europe must be capable of building a drone army in case Russia attacks.
Military intelligence has suggested Russian forces could be ready to strike a NATO country within the next five years.
In order to defend themselves, Andrius Kubilius says Europeans will require millions of drones and need to start preparing now.
“Russia can have around five million drones, so we need to have capacities bigger than those in order to prevail,” he told Sky News, warning that if President Putin ordered an attack, the target would face a “battle-tested” Russian army with the ability to use “millions of drones”.
The 2022 invasion of Ukraine sparked a revolution in drone warfare.
Facing one of the world’s strongest militaries, the Ukrainians used the cheap, adaptable technology to their advantage.
It estimates its drone units are now responsible for 80% of Russian frontline losses.
Mr Kubilius has visited Ukraine to learn the lessons from the battlefield.
Along the 1,200km (745 mile) front line is an area nicknamed “Death Valley”.
“Nothing can move. Everything is controlled by drones. A traditional tank in that zone survives six minutes,” he explained.
This year, Ukraine’s expected to produce more than four million drones.
Contemplating how many units other countries would need, the commissioner used the example of his home country of Lithuania.
The former Soviet republic shares a border of around 900km (559 miles) with Russia and Belarus.
“If Ukrainians need four million for 1,200km, we need something like three million drones for one year if the war is starting, if ‘Day X’ is coming,” he said.
To try to stay ahead in the fight, both Russia and Ukraine are constantly updating their drone technology.
For this reason, the commissioner believes that rather than stockpiling drones now, which will go out of date, Europe should instead build up teams of pilots, engineers, and producers ready to scale up production should the time come.
“On the European continent, at the moment, there are only two armies battle-tested with the ability to use millions of drones: one is Russian, which is planning new aggressions; another one is Ukrainian,” said Mr Kubilius.
“We need to learn a lot from Ukraine… how to organise defences against millions of drones, and also how to make your defence industry innovative,” he added.
It’s a point many in the business agree with.
German start-up STARK has been testing loitering munitions or “attack drones” ready to supply to Kyiv.
“It’s all made for easy handling for soldiers, so you don’t have to use any tools on the front line, and you just plug in the rudders,” said STARK’s senior vice president, Josef Kranawetvogl, as he quickly clicked the unit’s tail together.
He spent 18 years in the German military before making the jump to weapons production.
He says staying ahead of the enemy requires tactics and technology to be frequently updated.
“Every day you have to adapt. You have such fast development cycles in Ukraine – two or three weeks, then there’s something new upcoming and you have to be prepared for this.”
Since the start of June, Russia has repeatedly used drone swarms to attack Ukraine.
It involves hundreds of drones hammering cities in one night.
I asked Josef whether he believes NATO’s European members are ready to defend against such an attack.
“I see quite a lot of European armies starting right now to develop or to purchase unmanned systems, and it’s a good development, but it’s all about time. How can we speed up?” he replied.
Close to the border with France, another German start-up, Alpine Eagle, is testing defence drone units for Ukraine.
“This is our interceptor drone,” explained the company’s CEO, Jan-Hendrik Boelens, holding up a prototype which looks a bit like a small black plane. The interceptor is carried underneath a large grey drone.
On-board radar means it can be fired at enemy drones up to 5km (3 miles) away.
Jan thinks that could be a game changer in an aerial battle as it means hostile units could be picked off before they get close.
And he believes NATO is unprepared if one of its countries was to be hit by a wave of drones like those in Ukraine.
“We are absolutely not ready in my view,” he said.
He explained that Ukraine produced around 1.3 million drones a year last year.
“I would be surprised if NATO even bought a thousand drones last year. I think Germany procured, I don’t know, 100, maybe 200. So now you do the math on what that means and how quickly you run out of drones.
“If Ukraine consumed 1.3 million drones per year, that’s 3,000 a day. So, if you have 100 in your inventory, that would not last an hour.”
A spokesperson from the German Defence Ministry said the numbers stated “do not closely reflect reality”.
“Drones are now part of everyday life for soldiers, they are omnipresent and are used extensively in service operations and training,” they added.
Drones are a key part of NATO’s defence plan.
The alliance’s leadership has repeatedly said producing, procuring, and protecting against drones is a priority.
At the NATO summit, members agreed to boost defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.
In addition to increasing training and development, NATO Chief Mark Rutte has said he wants more investment in drone technology as well as boosting air defences fivefold.
“We see Russia’s deadly terror from the skies over Ukraine every day, and we must be able to defend ourselves from such attacks,” he told an audience at the summit.
Lessons from Ukraine have prompted members to embrace unmanned technology in various ways.
Britain is one of the countries pledging to put drones front and centre of its new defence plan.
Earlier this month, the UK government’s Strategic Defence Review outlined a new way forward for British Army warfighting based around a drone-centric 20-40-40 strategy in which uncrewed systems are deployed for first wave attacks, before tanks, attack helicopters and other manned platforms arrive on the battlefield.
In essence, the new weapons mix would be 20% traditional heavy platforms (like tanks), 40% single-use expendable drones and munitions, and the remaining 40% reusable, high-end drones.
It’s been confirmed that an extra £2bn will be spent on army drones this parliament.
Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain’s adversaries were working more in alliance and technology was changing how war was fought.
“Drones now kill more people than traditional artillery in the war in Ukraine and whoever gets new technology into the hands of their armed forces the quickest will win,” he said.
This week, the prime minister announced a deal with Ukraine to co-produce drones.
Germany and Denmark have made similar agreements with the German Ministry of Defence, telling Sky News that drones are a top priority.
In a drone showroom in central Berlin, we meet Sven Weizenegger, head of the German military’s cyber innovation hub.
He said they have noticed a boom in pitches from potential suppliers.
Every day, his department receives up to 20 enquiries from companies asking how their products could be used by the military.
He believes things need to move more quickly so soldiers get weapons faster.
“We are very advanced in the innovation process. That means we have a lot of ideas and many companies that are ready to deliver,” he explained. “Unfortunately, what we are not good at right now, due to our current processes, is getting these things into real operations, into frontline use. We need to fix that.”
Germany has promised to turbo-charge defence spending, with the Chancellor pledging to create the “strongest conventional army in Europe”.
Plans announced this week include boosting unmanned systems and air defences.
The German Ministry of Defence said it couldn’t reveal stock levels due to security, but a spokesperson confirmed the country is investing in a range of different units, including signing two contracts for attack drones.
“We are procuring not just a few but quite large quantities and testing them directly with the troops,” the spokesperson added.
However, they agreed with the EU defence commissioner that rather than stockpiling tech which would go out of date, it was better to have a system in place to allow for large quantities to be made quickly in the event of war.
In May, the EU approved a €150bn (£125bn) loan scheme to boost defence production across the bloc.
News.sky.com
No fewer than six people, including popular billionaire businessman, Wicknell Chivayo and his wife, Lucy Muteke, have been killed in a helicopter crash.
Naija News learnt that the family spokesperson, Herbert Chivayo, confirmed the deaths to ZBC News, saying those closest to the couple were struggling to come to terms with the loss.
Similarly, the Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary, Nick Mangwana, also confirmed the incident in a statement on 𝕏.
He said the helicopter was carrying the businessman, three other passengers and two pilots when it crashed in Marondera, Mashonaland East on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
The government extended its condolences to the victims’ families and friends.
The statement read, “The Government wishes to confirm that a helicopter crash has occurred, involving one high-profile businessman, three other passengers, and two pilots.
“Current information indicates that there were no survivors in this crash. The Zimbabwe Republic Police will confirm the names of the victims in due course.
“We extend our deepest condolences and prayers to the victims, their families, and their friends during this difficult time.”
In other news, the Chairman of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Fiidi Council Ward, Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Igbu Job Terhemen, has reportedly been killed by unknown assailants.
Terhemen was allegedly attacked in the early hours of Wednesday and later found unconscious near his residence along the Makurdi-Otukpo Road.
According to Daily Trust, a friend of the deceased, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Terhemen left his home on Tuesday evening to watch a local football match in the Kanshio area of Makurdi.
According to the source, he did not return home after the match, prompting relatives and friends to search for him.
The source said Terhemen was eventually found around 2 am in a bush near his residence, close to the NNPC depot.
A court in The Hague sentenced Kosovo’s former president Hashim Thaci to 25 years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of war crimes committed during the late 1990s conflict in which Kosovo broke away from Serbia
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted Thaci, 58, of murder, torture, cruel treatment, and the illegal detention of civilians
The tribunal determined that he bore criminal responsibility as the top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the ethnic Albanian separatist force that fought Serbian security forces between 1998 and 1999. Presiding judge Charles Smith said Thaci “actively participated in and encouraged crimes.”
The court established that KLA forces under his command murdered 96 people identified as political opponents or perceived collaborators with Serbian authorities. A further 385 people were arbitrarily detained, 303 were tortured, and around 50 others suffered cruel treatment.
Judge Smith told the court: “The scale and nature of the crimes committed were very serious. The so-called intelligence on which many of these victims were arrested, detained and killed was little more than unverified rumours. Based on that information, victims were called and described as spies and collaborators and violently treated.”
The American judge was careful to clarify that the proceedings were “not about the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army” or Kosovo’s goal of independence. Thaci, who denied all charges, stood in silence as the sentence was delivered. He retains the right to appeal.
Three other former senior KLA figures were tried alongside Thaci. Jakup Krasniqi also received a 25-year sentence, while Kadri Veseli was jailed for 18 years and Rexhep Selimi for 13 years. All four had denied the charges.
The panel acquitted the four men on six counts of crimes against humanity, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove those crimes were part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.
The verdicts drew an immediate public response in Kosovo, where Thaci remains a revered figure for many ethnic Albanians. Thousands had gathered in the capital Pristina ahead of the ruling, with crowds filling a central square waving red and black Albanian flags and banners calling for the men’s acquittal. When the guilty verdicts were announced on a big screen, many in the crowd booed and wept.
Thaci had resigned from the Kosovo presidency in late 2020 to face the charges, after nearly three years of trial proceedings. In his closing address to the court in February, he said: “Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice.”
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted to the verdict by posting an image of barbed wire stretched across a map of Europe, with a single word: “Unbelievable.”
A new investigation by The New York Times claims Sudan’s military ran an organized program in 2024 to develop and produce chlorine-based munitions, escalating long-standing allegations of chemical weapons use in the country’s war.
According to the report, the Times reviewed nearly 150 documents, plus photos, videos, audio recordings and thousands of messages. The materials describe months of work to design, test and manufacture about 300 bombs filled with chlorine.
Brigadier General Tariq Hussein is named as one of the principal supervisors. The documents detail a munition that combined explosives with large quantities of chlorine, and tests carried out before production.
One of the most serious claims involves the source of the chemical. The dossier alleges that some chlorine was taken from a water-treatment facility in Omdurman, at a time when Sudan is facing cholera outbreaks and a collapse of basic services.
The investigation also points to senior leadership. Voice and text messages reportedly implicate army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in knowledge of the program, and in orders to “remove all traces” after U.S. pressure and sanctions.
This is not the first time chemical weapons have been alleged in Sudan. Independent.ng reported that the Sudanese Alliance for Rights filed a case at the International Criminal Court against four senior Port Sudan Authority leaders, including al-Burhan, accusing them of using chemical weapons and committing serious violations against civilians. The lawsuit also names Yasser al-Atta, Shams al-Din al-Kabashi and Major General Taher Mohammed, and calls for an urgent ICC investigation.
The U.S. has already acted on earlier findings.
Independent.ng noted that Washington imposed additional penalties in May 2025 over the alleged use of chemical weapons, further linking Sudan’s war to international politics.
Chlorine is permitted for water purification, but using it as a weapon violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Sudan ratified. Experts say its civilian availability makes it easier to obtain and harder to monitor than military-grade agents.
With the conflict since April 2023 already causing mass displacement and famine, rights groups are now calling for an independent international investigation with access to sites, documents and the chain of command.
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