“It’s war!”

That is the warning from Polish PM Donald Tusk to European leaders in Copenhagen.

“We are in a time of war,” he told the almost 50 leaders assembled for the 7th meeting of the European Political Community.

“It’s war, a new type of war, but it’s war.”

European defence and security is top of the agenda here, and the Prime Minister had hoped to chair a round table on tackling illegal migration too.

This is the seventh meeting of the European Political Community, the brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It brings together leaders of all European countries, regardless of whether they are in the EU.

Sir Keir Starmer arrived yesterday and dined with the Danish King and Queen last night.

Arriving at the conference, he was clear: “Migration and Ukraine will be the two dominant issues in the discussions today.”

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He talked of “how we put in more support for Ukraine, put pressure on Putin.”

And on discussing the challenge of tackling illegal migration across Europe, he said: “There’s a big appetite for it, a number of countries wanting to work with us on what more we can do.”

But when news of a terror attack outside a Manchester synagogue reached Copenhagen, the PM left abruptly to return home and chair a Cobra meeting in response.

So his round table meeting on illegal migration didn’t happen.

There had been due to be an announcement of more money to tackle migration upstream, in the Western Balkans and in key African source and transit companies.

And the Government’s announcement that it will be much harder for asylum seekers to bring family members, and harder to be granted indefinite leave to remain, has splashed the front pages.

The Prime Minister says: “There will be no golden ticket to settling in the UK, people will have to earn it.”

It’s an acknowledgement, the Government admits, that some “are asylum shopping across the continent, looking for the country that offers them the most”.

They also concede: “We have been criticised in this country for being too generous, creating a pull factor.”

The scrapping of the automatic right for migrants to bring family members after successfully claiming asylum is designed to discourage people from coming. It’s part of tougher measures to be fleshed out by new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in the coming weeks.

But though illegal migration is a challenge for the whole of Europe, minds in Copenhagen are focused on Russia and the pattern of provocations over recent weeks.

Here in Denmark, drone activity led to the closure of Danish airports across multiple days and massive disruption.

Danish PM Mette Frederiksen told reporters: “From a European perspective, there is only one country… willing to threaten us and that is Russia, and therefore we need a very strong answer back.”

Three Russian MiG fighter jets entered Estonian airspace for a full 12 minutes late last month, and drones damaged Polish villages in September.

It’s not just in the air where Russia is testing Europe’s reactions. Tusk spoke of incidents in the Baltic Sea “every day” and says there are “thousands of violations”.

“Permanent confrontation is our daily routine now,” he said.

The Danish PM warned: “Russia will not stop until they are forced to” and said Putin’s regime posed “a grave threat to all of us”.

She said “there is no sign Putin’s Imperial fever-dream stops with Ukraine” and that Europe has “to move much faster”.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky was seated next to Sir Keir Starmer before the PM had to leave early.

Starmer said Russian president Vladimir Putin is interfering “right across Europe”….”whether that’s in relation to our airspace, whether it’s cyber or other attacks that have been going on, they are unrelenting”.

He praised the Ukrainian leader and said: “It’s fantastic that you are here.

“It’s been four long years for brave Ukrainians fighting. I have been struck by the severity of the attack on civilians, in particular, in recent weeks.”

“It’s a reminder for all of us that this is not just a question of Ukrainian sovereignty, it is a question of the values and freedoms of all of us, and we are all in this fight.”

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