European Union ministers have conceded that civilians could easily have died in the Russian drone incursions that crossed the bloc's airspace in recent days. The assessment came from ministers responsible for the Union's preparedness work as they weighed what Moscow's violations of national airspace mean for public safety. Their shared position was that usable measures already exist should Russia's encroachments continue or escalate. The ministers put the point bluntly: the incidents of the past weeks could have ended in deaths. Drones have strayed into the airspace of several member states lately, a pattern of intrusion that has unsettled governments from the Baltic to the North Sea. Debate in Brussels now turns to which of those available tools actually get used, and how quickly. For the countries sitting closest to Russia, the admission that lives were at stake strengthens the argument for faster, firmer action.