Sea-Watch spokesperson Giulia Messmer said the incident is part of a pattern of growing attacks.

“We saw in the last couple of weeks that the violence on the central Mediterranean is escalating … this is definitely not a single occurrence,” she told POLITICO.

Sea-Watch reported that a Corrubia-class patrol boat — identified as belonging to Libya — ordered the Sea-Watch 5 to turn north, a move that would have interrupted the rescue. When the crew did not comply, the patrol boat opened fire, the organization said.

The NGO issued a mayday call and a Frontex surveillance plane later confirmed the Libyan vessel trailing eight nautical miles behind, according to Sea-Watch. The Italian-built boat involved was supplied to Libya in 2018 as part of an EU-backed effort to curb irregular migration, despite repeated allegations of human rights abuses.

The incident mirrors an attack on Aug. 24, when the rescue ship Ocean Viking, operated by the French NGO SOS Méditerranée, came under fire from a Libyan patrol boat financed by EU funds via Italy’s SIBMMIL program, triggering a major political row in Italy and abroad.

Friday’s incident also comes two days after the European Commission defended continued cooperation with Libya, following a letter signed by multiple NGOs urging Brussels to suspend ties.

“What on earth more does the European Commission need to suspend its support for this reckless, unaccountable force?” Judith Sunderland, Associate Director of Human Rights Watch, said on Friday.

“We see no real commitment to Europe’s proclaimed values and will continue to question the current political approach, which offers no security to European citizens or to people who have the right to seek asylum in the EU,” Messmer said.

On Friday, the Commission gathered defense ministers from Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Hungary, Slovakia and the Danish Council presidency were also represented. In a separate meeting where NATO was present as an observer, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal briefed them on his country’s “battle-tested expertise.”

Participants agreed the drone wall should include detection, tracking and interception capabilities, the Commission said. Other assets should include ground-based defenses, such as anti-mobility systems, maritime security as well as space-based situational awareness.

In a bid to bring Southern European countries and those more distant from Russia on board, both the European Commission and front-line nations insisted that Russian drones posed a risk to the bloc as a whole, not only Central and Eastern Europe.

The drone incursions in Denmark — which the government says may be linked to Russia — show that “the threat is not limited to the eastern flank, that drones could be launched from a nearby ship or vessel,” Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

The drone wall will be on the agenda of next week’s informal EU leaders’ meeting in Copenhagen. The Commission will now come up with “a detailed technical roadmap with national experts” as well as “build a comprehensive EU financial toolbox to make this shield a reality.” The project could be funded by the €150 billion loans-for-weapons SAFE scheme and the €1.5 billion European Defence Industry Program (EDIP), but Brussels is also looking at other options.

Ukraine, which has more than three years of battlefield experience against Russian drones, is ready to participate and provide expertise, including by sending technical teams to train EU and NATO armed forces, Shmyhal said.