Reuters
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Denmark said the drones that halted flights at major airports on Monday were the most serious attacks on critical infrastructure, linking to a series of suspected Russian drone invasions and other disruptions across Europe.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen said the drone activities appear to be designed “to disrupt and create anxiety,” but authorities refrained from naming the suspect.
Later Monday, sightings of two or three large drones near Copenhagen Airport stopped all takeoffs and landings for nearly four hours. Norwegian authorities also closed the airspace at Oslo Airport three hours after the drone was seen.
Tens of thousands of passengers have been stranded due to closures at one of the busiest airports in the Nordic region.
“What we saw last night was the most serious attack on Denmark’s critical infrastructure so far,” Fredericksen said in a statement sent to the media on Tuesday.
“We’re clearly not ruled out any options as to who is behind it, and it’s clear that this fits the developments we’ve seen recently in other drone attacks, airspace violations and hacker attacks on European airports,” she said.
In comments to the public broadcaster Dr. Fredericksen said he reported that Russian drone invasions were suspected of invading Poland and Romania airspace and that Russian fighters entered the airspace on Friday.
“I can’t deny that I’m Russia for sure,” she said.
Danish police declined to comment on X’s posting by Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky without providing evidence that Russia was behind the Copenhagen airspace violation.
In a statement sent to Reuters, Russia’s Danish ambassador, Vladimir Burbin, said that alleged involvement in Russia was unfounded. “The incident in the sky above Copenhagen Airport reveals a clear desire to provoke NATO countries into a direct military conflict with Russia,” he said.
Western security agencies have said that the hybrid threat, particularly from Russia, has become increasingly aggressive in recent years.
These threats include everything from physical obstruction of critical infrastructure to disinformation campaigns, suspected spying to cyber attacks.
Moscow has consistently denied responsibility for hybrid attacks in Europe.
Danish police said Danish drones will come from various directions and turn the lights on and off and then eventually go off in a few hours.
Danish police chief Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday that authorities are investigating several hypotheses, including the possibility that the drone could have been launched from the ship.
Denmark’s major airports are located near busy shipping lanes as the ship leaves the Baltic Sea and enters the exit. Marinetraffic.com data shows a Royal Danish Navy ship patrolling the waters next to Copenhagen for several hours on Tuesday morning.
“This is an actor who has the ability, will and tools to flaunt him like this,” Jespersen said. It was too early to say whether the Denmark and Norway cases were linked, he said.
Norwegian security police, PST, told Reuters that the situation was “still unclear” and was in “everyday contact with the actors nationwide and internationally.”
