Denmark said a “professional actor” was behind drone flights over multiple airports in a “hybrid attack” designed to create fear.
Police said early today a number of drones flew over several airports across the country and caused one of them to close for hours, AFP reported.
According to the BBC, there was no evidence of Russian involvement, after drone activity disrupted the country’s air space for the second time in four days.
Aalborg airport in the country’s north was forced to shut down for several hours after green lights were spotted overhead. Drones were also spotted on September 24 and early on September 25 at airports in Esbjerg, Sonderborg and at the Skrydstrup air base before leaving on their own, police said.
On September 22, Copenhagen airport temporarily closed due to a drone incursion.
Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a news conference that today’s “hybrid attack” was part of a “systematic operation” but said the devices had been launched locally.
“There can be no doubt that everything points to this being the work of a professional actor,” Poulsen said, according to UK newspaper The Independent.
“It certainly does not look like a coincidence. It looks systematic. This is what I would define as a hybrid attack.”
While he termed it a “hybrid attack”, he underscored there was “no direct military threat” to Denmark, AFP reported.
The drone flights follow similar incidents in Poland and Romania and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets, which have raised tensions in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Suspicious drones have also been sighted over Germany and Sweden. All are suspected – but not proven – to be part of Russia’s indirect aggression towards Nato states supporting Ukraine, the BBC reported.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Russian involvement in the Copenhagen drone incursion could not be ruled out, describing it as “the most severe attack on Danish infrastructure so far”. The incident also saw Oslo airport in Norway temporarily close.
Justice minister Peter Hummelgaard said Denmark would acquire new enhanced capabilities to “detect” and to “neutralise drones”.
“The aim of this type of hybrid attack is to spread fear, create division and frighten us,” Hummelgaard said.
He said Copenhagen was currently “not ruling out anything in terms of who is behind this”.
Aalborg airport, located in northern Denmark and one of the country’s biggest after Copenhagen, reopened several hours after the incident.
“It was not possible to take down the drones, which flew over a very large area over a couple of hours,” North Jutland chief police inspector Jesper Bojgaard Madsen said about the incident in Aalborg.
“At this time, we have not apprehended the drone operators either,” he added in a statement.
South Jutland police said they had “received several reports of drone activity at the airports in Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup”, late yesterday evening.
The Esbjerg and Sonderborg airports were not closed because no flights were scheduled there until this morning.
Police there said the drones “flew with lights and were observed from the ground, but it has not yet been clarified what type of drones they are … or what the motive is”, according to AFP.
An investigation was underway with the Danish intelligence service and the armed forces to “clarify the circumstances”, police said.
Poelsen noted that an emergency European Union meeting had been called for tomorrow, at which enhanced drone preparedness across Europe would be discussed.
Earlier in September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for a “drone wall” to tackle incursions launched by Russia.
What that means is not entirely clear – but detecting the drones early and then destroying them are seen as key elements of such a strategy, according to the BBC.
NATO member Denmark is set to host next week’s planned EU summit in Copenhagen, which will be attended by heads of state and government.
The drone flights came after Denmark announced it will acquire long-range precision weapons for the first time, citing the need to be able to hit distant targets as Russia would pose a threat “for years to come”.
Moscow’s ambassador to Copenhagen, Vladimir Barbin, had called the statement “pure madness”.
