COPENHAGEN – Unidentified drones flew over Danish military sites including its biggest base following a slew of earlier sightings that Copenhagen has termed a “hybrid attack”, hinting at possible Russian involvement.
Mysterious drone sightings across Denmark and Norway since Monday have prompted the closure of several airports.
Copenhagen will host a European Union summit gathering heads of government on Wednesday and Thursday and Denmark has accepted a Swedish offer of Stockholm’s anti-drone technology to ensure the meeting can proceed without disruption.
In Denmark, drones were confirmed at “several military sites”, a military spokesman told AFP on Saturday, refusing to provide other details.
Danish police said “one to two drones” were observed Friday around 8:15 pm (1815 GMT) near and over the Karup military base, the country’s biggest base which houses all of the armed forces’ helicopters, airspace surveillance, flight school and support functions.
Karup is also home to parts of the defence command.
Police spokesman Simon Skelkjaer said he could not comment on where the drones came from, adding: “We didn’t take them down.”
The Karup base shares its runways with the Midtjylland civilian airport, which was briefly closed, though no flights were affected as none were scheduled at that hour, Skelkjaer said.
The EU Commission gave its “full support to Denmark”, a spokesman told AFP.
In Norway, the military was joining forces with police to determine if it was indeed drones that were observed.
“The sightings are probably drones but the investigation will find out what it was,” a spokesman for Norway’s joint headquarters, Brynjar Stordal, told AFP.
“At least two drones” flew in a restricted area near the base “for around an hour” before disappearing, he said.
Police in Norway’s northern Nordland county temporarily extended air and land restrictions for drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles to 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) around four airports serving a mix of regional, international and military flights, until Monday as “a precautionary measure”.
In Germany, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Saturday that a drone “swarm” was spotted Friday over the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark.
He said he wants to revise air safety laws to allow the armed forces to shoot down drones.
The string of drone sightings in the past week came on the heels of drone incursions in Polish and Romanian territory and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets, which raised tensions in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday that Denmark was “the victim of hybrid attacks,” referring to unconventional warfare.
Investigators have so far failed to identify those responsible, but Frederiksen said that “there is one main country that poses a threat to Europe’s security, and it is Russia.”
Moscow said Thursday it “firmly rejects” any suggestion that it was involved in the Danish incidents, with its embassy in Copenhagen calling them “a staged provocation”.
Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said earlier this week the aim of the attacks was “to spread fear, create division and frighten us”.
The drone flights began just days after Denmark announced it would acquire long-range precision weapons for the first time, as Russia would pose a threat “for years to come”.
Hummelgaard said Copenhagen would also acquire new enhanced capabilities to detect and neutralise drones.
Defence ministers from around 10 EU countries agreed Friday to make a so-called “drone wall” a priority for the bloc. – AFP
