Denmark on Wednesday reported a drone sighting over its airports, a second time this week, as Europe is battling suspected Russian airspace violations and cyberattacks.
Aalborg airport in northern Denmark, which is also a military base, was forced to close as “more than one drone” was seen flying near it at 9.45 PM Wednesday and were cleared shortly before 1 AM. Drone sightings were observed in three other airports in Esbjerg, Sønderborg and Skrydstrup. Police have not identified who is behind the incident.
The drone sighting comes days after two or three large drones halted the take-offs and landings at Copenhagen airport, in what the country’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen called “a serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure”. It also follows major cyberattacks that disrupted the work of airports across major European cities, including in London Heathrow airport. Norway also reported drone sightings over Oslo this week, which cause the closure of Oslo airport for three hours. It’s unclear whether these incidents are connected.
However, Denmark’s National Police Commissioner Thorkild Fogd said that there was a similar pattern between the drone sightings over Aalborg and Copenhagen airports, as both involved “unauthorized drones over-flying the airport area, breaking airport security, violating the airspace.”
Earlier on Monday, following the airport disruption in Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen suggested Russia could be behind the incident, linking it to other drone breaches in Poland and Romania. Speaking to Danish public broadcaster DR, Frederiksen said “I certainly cannot deny in any way that it is Russia.” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen described the incident as a “hybrid attack” but said the devices had been launched locally. Denmark’s Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said an EU meeting had been called for Friday to discuss enhanced drone preparedness across Europe. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has called suggestions of Russian involvement “unfounded.”
Russia has been accused of violating airspace of a number of NATO countries in the past two weeks. Poland and Estonia called an emergency NATO summit last week over the violation of their airspace by twenty Russian drones and three fighter jets respectively. Romania also reported its airspace was breached by a Russian fighter jet. Russia denied incursion into Estonia’s airspace, while stating that violation of Poland’s airspace was a mistake. The Kremlin has not commented on Romania’s claims of airspace violation.
