Recent drone incursions in Poland and Romania have exposed NATO’s vulnerabilities against a potent and battle-hardened Russian armed force.
After the two sides reportedly lodged their formal protest, Poland immediately summoned the UN Security Council meeting to denounce the Russian drone incursions near the eastern border. Italy has flagged several noticeable gaps in NATO’s defence capabilities, including the lack of anti-drone systems, anti-missile defence systems, and weak border defences, which remain a problem with the majority of NATO members.
On Monday, the Italian defence minister said that the country is not ready to defend itself from a Russian attack, as it lacks potent defence capabilities in case of a potential drone or missile assault. The minister said that the underinvestment in defence and over-reliance on the United States cannot be reversed quickly.
Guido Crosetto said, "We are not ready for a Russian attack or an attack by any other nation. I have been saying this for a long time.”
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"I think we have the duty to put this country in a position to defend itself if some madman decides to attack us: I'm not talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin; I'm talking about anyone," he said.
Crosetto said, “Two decades of underinvestment in defence have created a massive vacuum, which is hard to fill in a year or two.” Speaking about NATO, the defence chief said Italy is already one of the major contributors to the alliance in the eastern flank.
"If we need to increase it, we’ll be formally asked,” he said, adding that so far only NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had made such a statement, not a formal request. NATO’s Eastern flank with Russia sees border sharing between Poland, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovakia.
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