Europe On Edge? Belarus ‘Downs’ Russian Drone; Germany Deploys Infrared Missile Amid ‘Putin Threat’

Germany, the second-largest contributor of military aid to Ukraine after the United States, has already supplied four Iris-T SLM systems to Ukraine and pledged another eight.Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov was visiting Germany on Wednesday, a day after a Russian missile attack killed at least 51 people in the Ukrainian city of Poltava, one of the single deadliest bombardments of the war.The Iris-T systems sent to Ukraine feature truck-mounted launchers that fire missiles to intercept aerial threats at a range of up to 40 kilometres (25 miles).Scholz said that “in Ukraine, Iris-T has shot down over 250 rockets, drones and cruise missiles to date and saved countless lives”.The German leader said that Europe, aside from defensive systems, would also need more precision missiles of its own “so that there is no dangerous gap with Russia in this strategically important field”.In July, Washington and Berlin announced that the “episodic deployments” of long-range US missiles, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, to Germany would begin in 2026.Scholz stressed that “our sole concern is to deter potential attackers. Every attack on us must mean a risk for the attacker. Our concern is to secure peace here and prevent war, and nothing else.”