Drone incident: how effective will the response be?
In response to the finding that Russia was behind the Leipzig drone incident, Germany is closing the Russian Consulate-General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, which is suspected of serving as a front for Russian agents. Entry restrictions for Russians and a crackdown on the country's shadow fleet have also been announced. Meanwhile, the EU is preparing another sanctions package.
Germany now a serious opponent for Putin
Berlin has gone from being one of Putin's partners to a serious opponent of the Russian regime, notes Rzeczpospolita:
“Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Alexei Navalny, who was murdered in a Russian penal colony, is active in Berlin and works there with a host of colleagues. And other groups from the democratic Russian opposition are also represented there, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Putting these facts together leads to one conclusion: Germany is not only hastening the collapse of the Putin regime by sending supplies to the Ukrainian army, but is also offering shelter to its potential successors on the country's own doorstep.”
Last ties to Moscow being severed
Germany is saying goodbye to the idea of neutralising rivalries by forming energy partnerships, Daily Sabah observes:
“Can a country entrust a strategic resource to the power it accuses of placing explosives beside critical cargo aircraft on its own territory? Germany is therefore choosing strategic insulation over cheaper energy precisely when that choice is becoming more expensive. ... [Former chancellor Gerhard] Schröder once assumed that pipelines and personal trust could turn geopolitical rivals into predictable partners. Germany is not harvesting the fruits of that project. It is removing its final remnants.”
West’s response too mild
Forum24 echoes the sentiment of those calling for a firmer stance vis-à-vis Russia:
“Why weren't maximum economic sanctions imposed immediately, and why are they still not being imposed even now? Why is Germany not supplying Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles, as Merz demanded while he was in the opposition? Why are EU and Nato states not taking a united and uncompromising stance against the Russian shadow fleet, which is helping Moscow to circumvent the sanctions? ... Tankers are exporting oil at prices above the European price cap, thereby helping to finance the war. Russia's revenue from fossil fuel exports during the war has exceeded one trillion euros!”
Russians must be made to feel like pariahs
Jydske Vestkysten draws attention to the issuing of Schengen visas to Russian citizens:
“The Russians are supposed to be made to feel like pariahs. It is utterly absurd that 623,451 of them were granted visas in 2025 to enjoy the sun and colourful drinks in Europe while their country's missiles were pounding Ukrainian apartment blocks. ... Now the EU wants to ban former soldiers (!) from entering, but we must deny access to all Russians. ... Similarly, we must prevent Russians from taking part in sport, culture and everything else. This may be drastic. But it has to be.”
We can no longer look away
Europe should adopt a tougher stance in its response, urges De Volkskrant:
“Unfortunately, Russia's intimidation tactics are working. For many Europeans, economic concerns and fears of war outweigh the desire to stop Putin's aggression. ... While internally, divisive political forces are just waiting for their chance to give in to Putin's demands, externally Europe does not (yet) have the means or the will to deter Russia. ... Looking the other way is a tried-and-tested European strategy, but the risk is that the price to be paid later on will be ever higher.”
Shake off the paralysis
In addition to showing unity, EU member states must adopt concrete measures against the Russian aggressor, Libération argues:
“Putin's aim is to sow doubt, to divide Europeans, to strengthen the far right wherever it stands a chance of making a breakthrough (for example this coming weekend in Saxony-Anhalt), to stoke paranoia – in short, to play with fire. Until it all blows up? That very question is part of the threat. And it is what makes a response so complicated. ... This is what is currently paralysing the Europeans, whose foreign ministers met in Dublin on Wednesday. They all agreed on condemning Russia, which is a start. But they haven't yet found the right way to tackle the problem.”
We must be willing to make sacrifices
Germany cannot deter Putin from further aggression on its own, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
“This can only be achieved by acting in close unison with our partners and allies in the EU and Nato. But the fact that the EU is now negotiating its 22nd sanctions package is more a sign of weakness than of strength. When it comes to sanctions against Russia, EU member states often struggle more among themselves than with Russia. EU member states are still buying oil and gas from Putin, the frozen Russian state assets are still not being made available to Ukraine, and Germany still hasn't given up the Russian pollack that goes into its beloved fish fingers. Yet only a united Europe that is prepared to make financial sacrifices can hope to make Putin stop and think.”
Time to build a Greater Europe
Germany must become a regional hegemonic power within a Greater Europe, writes political scientist Carlos Gaspar in Público:
“The break between Russia and Germany, the growing distance between the US and Western Europe, and the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the Middle East have created the conditions for Germany to become a regional hegemonic power. ... Germany's strategy follows the American model of regional integration, which combines the deepening of relations between European states with the expansion of Europe's borders. The construction of a European defence union is inextricably linked to Ukraine's accession to the European institutions, with the aim of creating a free and united 'Greater Europe'.”
Warsaw and Berlin must stick together
Gazeta Wyborcza stresses that this is not the time for German-Polish historical debates:
“It is regrettable that a section of the Polish political class still fails to recognise the gravity of the situation and makes anti-German statements, as if we were still living in 2019. President Karol Nawrocki's tirades on 1 September during the commemorative ceremonies at Westerplatte concerning the Weimar Republic's anti-Polish policies, the revival of the reparations issue and the stoking of anti-German phobias have nothing to do with honouring the Polish victims of the Third Reich. ... Today, the dividing line in Europe – a potential front line – runs not between Poland and Germany, but along the border with Russia.”
Germany’s new tough stance
Eitvydas Bajarūnas, former Lithuanian ambassador to Russia, sees the real news value in Berlin's reaction. He writes in LRT:
“For a long time Berlin was very cautious – not only when it came to identifying Russian hybrid operations but in particular when considering countermeasures. Now we're seeing a changing Germany – one that is not only deploying a brigade in Lithuania and strengthening the Bundeswehr, its air defences and security forces in the Baltic Sea, but may also be more inclined to make Russia pay a concrete political and economical price for its hybrid operations. ... It is nothing new that Russia is waging a hybrid war. What is new is that Germany is finally beginning to respond to it differently.”
Ceasefire the only option
The dynamics of war must be decelerated, Le Figaro urges:
“For the time being, it is the war that is gaining ground, with Moscow stepping up its hybrid attacks on Ukraine's Western allies. ... And on the Ukrainian side, the threat to 'block' Russian airspace for civilian air traffic also has the potential to lead to an escalation. In a conflict that has exhausted virtually all options, these stopgap measures will not be enough to break a nation's morale. The danger of the conflict spreading is growing. A ceasefire, as proposed by Volodymyr Zelensky, is therefore urgently needed to halt this headlong rush.”
Europe must go a step further
A response to the Russian attacks was long overdue, says Frankfurter Rundschau:
“It also sends a signal to EU citizens to take the Russian threat more seriously and not just see it as a distant war against Ukraine. Sanctions alone are not enough. Germany and its partners will have to do more than before to mitigate the consequences of Russia's hybrid war, which encompasses sabotage and disinformation campaigns. ... The EU should go a step further. Spain and Greece should hand over their Patriot missile defence ammunition to Ukraine so that the invaded country can better protect itself against Russian attacks.”
Measured response from Berlin
The Tages-Anzeiger praises the response:
“This is a moderate signal to Putin, a cautious one even, since Berlin has refrained from involving Nato. Yet it is also a measured response because Chancellor Friedrich Merz thus retains the option to resort to the means of escalation: firstly, Article 4, which provides for consultations within the defence alliance if 'the territorial integrity or security' of an ally is threatened. And if the Russian bully still does not cease his provocations, Nato could then activate Article 5, the collective defence clause – at which point war in Europe would not be far off. Rationally speaking, Putin can have no interest in things going that far. But this warlord has not been behaving particularly rationally for some time now.”
Now the last buffer is gone
Unfortunately, the time for purely diplomatic responses is over, De Standaard stresses:
“Germany and its Nato allies must now do everything in their power to break free from the logic that military action is the only possible next move. Perhaps the concept of 'hybrid defence and deterrence' can buy some time, with a combination of diplomatic and economic sanctions and the accelerated expansion of their own defence capabilities. But the little diplomacy that had tentatively been pursued so far will be destroyed as a result. Positions will inevitably harden. There is no longer any buffer to prevent a reaction.”
Bureaucrats provoked into hasty measures
Journalist Sergei Aslanjan makes light of Germany's reaction on Facebook:
“Russia has acted treacherously, even though it knows that the Bundeswehr is not online at night and only wages war during working hours, in daylight from 8 am to 5 pm and with a lunch break. Russia's military operations on German territory disrupt the Chancellor's schedule, throw his staff's work into disarray and prevent a well-considered response, thereby provoking the government into taking hasty measures. This has a significant impact on Germany's defence capabilities, deprives Bundeswehr soldiers of their statutory benefits, disrupts their workflow and hinders their combat training.”
Leipzig was part of a campaign
Russia is pursuing a grand plan with small-scale actions, writes military expert Alexandru Grumaz in Adevărul:
“Moscow is targeting the system that is helping Ukraine to continue its fight. ... This is the fundamental problem for Nato. A large-scale attack on a member state is relatively easy to assess, both politically and militarily. A drone found near an airport, a suspicious fire in a factory, a damaged cable, a CCTV camera that has been tampered with or a saboteur recruited via Telegram are far more difficult to deal with. Taken individually, these incidents may be too minor to warrant a major response. Taken together, however, they can add up to a campaign. That is the essence of hybrid warfare.”