Ukraine’s message to Europe: You are under threat from Russia. We can help
Russian tanks move during the “Zapad-2025” joint Russian-Belarusian military drills at a training ground near the town of Barysaw, east of Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 15, 2025. (Olesya Kurpyayeva / AFP via Getty Images)
As Russia continues escalating its hybrid warfare tactics in Europe, the latest drone incursions into Poland and Estonia represent another bold move that has ratcheted up the temperature.
For Ukrainians living through the bloodiest land war in Europe since World War II, the message they hope Europe hears is that other countries are under threat, too — and that closer cooperation with Ukraine can protect them.
In addition to the recent flights of Russian drones over NATO territory, Russia is also suspected of being behind arson attacks in Poland and Lithuania, as well as sabotage of underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and disinformation campaigns across Europe to sow division.
"From a legal standpoint under international law, this is not yet a formal state of war between NATO countries and Russia. But it is already a state of hybrid war," said Oleksandr Merezhko, Ukrainian lawmaker and chair of the parliament's foreign affairs committee. “Ukraine must say that Russia is waging a hybrid war against Europe."
The war has already sparked recognition that Ukraine’s battlefield knowledge can be used to protect other countries. Foreign investment in Ukrainian defense technology has surged since the full-scale war broke out. The latest incursions into Poland sent European countries scrambling to get their hands on Ukraine’s interceptor drones, a far cheaper technology to counter drones than the missiles Poland used earlier this month.
"NATO states are now under threat."
Ukrainians hope that even more cooperation will follow the latest threats to Europe.
"We (Ukraine) have more experience, and we can genuinely help (Poland), especially when it comes to drones that intercept Russian drones," Merezhko added. "The key point is that we can assist: let them close the sky, and we’ll work together to shoot down Russian drones, before they even have a chance to cross into the airspace of NATO member states."
President Volodymyr Zelensky raised this topic during his speech to the U.N. Security Council on Sept. 23, calling on European allies to assist Ukraine in shooting down Russian missiles and drones fired over Ukrainian airspace.
"If there is no war in the sky, Russia can't keep fighting on the ground," Zelensky said, adding that he discussed the topic with U.S. President Donald Trump and other European leaders.
Even before the U.N. summit, the idea of NATO and Ukraine partnering to close the airspace over western Ukraine has been increasingly taken seriously in discussions with allies, said Bohdan Popov, head of analytics for the Ukrainian defense advisory firm Traida Trade Partners.
"It’s become more and more relevant for both sides, because NATO states are now under threat," he said.
The idea, Popov explained, is to fully integrate the aviation and air defense systems of NATO with Ukrainian defenses. NATO air defense systems like Patriots would be stationed in NATO countries near Ukraine’s border, and NATO fighter jets would be deployed during mass air strikes.
"All the drones, all the missiles that are flying in the NATO direction, would be intercepted over Ukraine and will not damage anything on the territory of NATO states," Popov said.
Ukraine hopes to sell this as a win-win situation for all parties — with NATO countries neutralizing threats before they reach NATO territory, and with Ukraine gaining additional protection over western regions, allowing it to shift some resources to eastern regions and the front line.
Part of the message Ukraine is trying to stress, Popov said, is that Russia will not stop in Ukraine, and that Russia’s goal is to eventually expand the battlefield to NATO territories.
Growing consensus in Europe on threat, but not on response
The message that Russia’s aggression was a threat to NATO countries didn’t stick in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, said Ed Arnold, a senior research fellow for European security within the International Security department at RUSI. At the time, Europe didn’t see the annexation and the war in the Donbas as a direct challenge to NATO and Europe’s security apparatus.
"That all went out the window in 2022," Arnold said. "It’s still taken from then, until now, to get unification in terms of: yes, this is actually a direct threat. We need to do something about it. Europe, I think, has been very, very slow."
But the events of the war have caused a "sea change" within Europe, said Arnold. "Russia being enemy number one isn’t contested."
Last month, for example, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz denounced the hybrid operations and sabotage attacks across Europe, stating, "We are already in conflict with Russia."
But even with a greater consensus about the threat, European governments still face a difficult balancing act in how to respond, said Alex Kokcharov, Bloomberg’s geoeconomics Analyst for Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.
European countries face budgetary constraints, and also have to weigh support for Ukraine against improving their own defense and military capabilities.
"We see that different European governments are approaching it differently," Kokcharov said, noting that Nordic and Baltic states are more receptive to the idea that arming Ukraine now will make Russian forces less capable in the future. "Some larger economies, such as France and Italy, are obviously not on the same page."
Still, Kokcharov said, Ukraine needs to keep emphasizing that Russia is still advancing.
"Russians are still taking territory, and they are conducting strikes deep into Ukrainian territory, causing damage to infrastructure and, crucially, the loss of life," said Kokcharov.
"Nothing in Russia’s action in Ukraine demonstrates that Russia is genuinely interested in peace."
