A handful of cheap drones now dictate billion-euro budgets and summit agendas. Europe’s hysteria over the skies says less about Moscow’s power than about its own loss of composure.

A strange hysteria has seized Europe. It is not about tanks on the border or missiles over cities but about drones: small, unverified, often harmless drones. They appear and disappear in the skies over Denmark, Germany, or Poland, and within hours, headlines scream of “hybrid war” and “airspace incursions.”

Airports close, summits are convened, and ministers stand in front of cameras promising new defences. What might once have been dismissed as an irritant has become a political tool and a justification for Europe’s new era of rearmament.

Fear as Strategy and Political Opportunity

In the words of Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, Europe needs “a calm assessment of the situation.” His plea, made to Handelsblatt, went largely unheard. The same week, Munich Airport was grounded twice, and Berlin rushed to announce an “anti-drone defence centre.” Yet no one could confirm who sent these drones or whether they even came from Russia.

This is the essence of today’s European security discourse: the performance of threat without proof, the choreography of fear. Moscow doesn’t need to destroy anything to win; it merely needs Europe to panic. One €5,000 to €50,000 drone can force NATO to fire a €1 million missile, or better still, approve billions in new defence budgets.

As The Moscow Times and Reuters have noted, Putin’s hybrid strategy relies less on technology than on psychology. By launching minor provocations, Russia tests Europe’s nerves and exposes its fault lines. Every unidentified drone, every minor cyberattack on a logistics firm or an airport, serves to confirm the narrative that Europe is under siege and that only military expansion can provide safety.

The Politics of Panic: Rearmament and the Welfare Trade-Off

The European reaction is revealing. Poland demands a “drone wall” stretching across its eastern border. Germany debates constitutional changes to let its army shoot down unmanned aircraft over domestic airspace. The European Commission, under Ursula von der Leyen, pushes a €1.5 billion anti-drone initiative. Yet the data do not justify such frenzy. Most of the incidents involve commercial-grade drones or unverified sightings.

But ‘collective anxiety,’ as put by The Guardian, and political hysteria have their uses. On a continent weary of inflation, strikes, and austerity, drones have become a convenient narrative. They unite electorates around the language of “security” and silence dissent over the erosion of welfare states.

Europe has already earmarked around €800 billion for defence over the next four years. That money will not fund hospitals or green transitions; it will buy radars, missiles, and American F-35s. In this sense, the drone panic is not merely emotional; it is fiscal. It justifies what Donald Trump long demanded: that Europeans “pay more” for NATO. And they are doing so at the expense of the very social fabric that once defined post-war Europe.

The political beneficiaries are clear. Social-led governments are facing fatigue, and populist, right-wing parties are winning elections - the last one was in the Czech Republic. Far-right parties, from Germany’s AfD to Italy’s Lega, take advantage to exploit the sense of insecurity to advocate for stronger borders, tougher asylum laws. Fear, in other words, has become Europe’s new industrial policy.

Russia’s Real Game: Winning the Psychological War

If Russia is indeed behind some of these drone incursions, its strategy is devastatingly efficient. As Rafael Loss of the European Council on Foreign Relations writes, Moscow operates in the “grey zone” - between peace and war, where small provocations create disproportionate political effects. As Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani bluntly put it, “Putin doesn’t want World War III.” I would say that Russia’s true goal is subtler: to keep Europe distracted, divided, and economically drained.

At the Valdai Club earlier this month, President Putin ridiculed the idea that Russia plans to attack NATO, calling it “nonsense” and accusing Western leaders of using hysteria to justify their militarisation. Behind the irony lies calculation. Each European overreaction validates his argument that the West is paranoid and politically fragile.

Meanwhile, Russia’s drones and cyber probes double as intelligence-gathering operations, mapping NATO’s defences and decision-making speed. Every false alarm reveals more about Europe’s command chains than about Russia’s capabilities. The result is an asymmetric game in which the Kremlin dictates the rhythm, and Europe dances nervously to every buzz in the sky.

Divided Skies, Divided Europe

The panic has also exposed Europe’s political divisions. At the Copenhagen summit on 1 October 2025, leaders clashed over who should coordinate the continent’s “drone defence,” Brussels or national capitals. France warned against “simplistic walls”; Greece and Italy protested that the new systems would protect only the eastern flank; Hungary blocked further sanctions. A German frigate anchored ostentatiously in Copenhagen harbour, symbolising strength even as unity crumbled.

Here lies Europe’s deeper weakness: the reflex to militarise without strategy. Drones have become metaphors for every insecurity: migration, energy dependence, technological lag, and the response is always the same: spend more, centralise more, and trust NATO to save the day. Yet NATO itself is haunted by doubts about U.S. reliability.

Trump’s revived talk of “taking” Greenland from Denmark, an EU and NATO member, has quietly reignited European fears that the American guarantee is conditional and transactional. The recent Israeli attack in Doha - and the lack of reaction from the nearby U.S. military base - has added another layer of mistrust towards Washington.

This uncertainty plays directly into Moscow’s hands. Every quarrel over funding or command authority confirms that NATO’s deterrence is not mechanical but psychological and vulnerable. Europe trembles not because of Russian drones, but because it no longer believes in its own resilience.

Conclusion: Europe’s Reflex of Fear

The great European drone panic is not about drones. It is about Europe’s loss of strategic composure. A handful of buzzing objects - real or imagined - have triggered billion-euro budgets, constitutional debates, and political theatre. In the process, Europe is trading welfare for weaponry, diplomacy for deterrence, and unity for panic.

Putin understands this perfectly. His aim is not to bomb Berlin or invade Warsaw but to keep Europe nervously circling around itself, convinced that every shadow in the sky is an existential threat. The tragedy is that he doesn’t have to make Europe weaker; Europe is doing that on its own, one “anti-drone summit” at a time.

Ricardo Martins, PhD in Sociology, specializing in International Relations and Geopolitics. Courtesy

https://journal-neo.su/2025/10/13/the-escalating-european-drone-panic-when-fear-becomes-a-political-weapon/