Denmark links drones at Copenhagen airport to hybrid attacks across Europe

Denmark said drones that halted flights at its main airport on Monday were the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and linked them to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the drone activity seemed designed "to disrupt and create unrest", though authorities refrained from naming suspects.

However, suspicions of Russian involvement were ungrounded, Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said in a statement.

Sightings of two or three large drones near Copenhagen airport late on Monday halted all take-offs and landings for nearly four hours. Authorities in Norway also shut the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours after a drone was seen.

The shutdowns at the Nordic region's busiest airports left tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

Separately, Lithuania's parliament granted the Baltic country's armed forces powers on Tuesday to shoot down any unmanned drone violating its airspace following incidents in which it said two Russian drones crashed on its territory.

"What we saw last night is the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date," Frederiksen said in a statement sent to media on Tuesday.

"We are obviously not ruling out any options in relation to who is behind it. And it is clear that this fits in with the developments we have observed recently with other drone attacks, violations of airspace, and hacker attacks on European airports," she said.

In comments to public broadcaster DR, Frederiksen noted recent suspected Russian drone incursions into Polish and Romanian airspace, as well as Estonia reporting that Russian fighter jets had entered its airspace on Friday.

"I certainly cannot deny in any way that it is Russia," she said.

Danish police declined to comment on a post on X by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, without providing evidence, that Russia was behind the Copenhagen airspace violation.

Russian denial

Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, retorted by saying that "the incident in the sky above Copenhagen Airport reveals a clear desire to provoke NATO countries into a direct military confrontation with Russia."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the halting of flights in Copenhagen was part of a "pattern of persistent contestation at our borders."

"Our critical infrastructure is at risk," von der Leyen said in a post on social media platform X, adding that facts were still being established.

Western security agencies have in recent years said hybrid threats were becoming increasingly aggressive.

Such threats include everything from physical sabotage of critical infrastructure to disinformation campaigns, suspected espionage, and cyberattacks.

Moscow has consistently denied responsibility for any hybrid attack in Europe.

Different directions

Danish police said the drones in Denmark came from different directions, turning their lights on and off, before eventually disappearing after several hours.

Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday authorities were investigating several hypotheses, including the possibility that the drones were launched from ships.

Denmark's main airport is located close to a busy shipping lane where vessels enter and exit the Baltic Sea. A Royal Danish Navy ship was patrolling the waters next to Copenhagen for several hours on Tuesday morning, data from Marinetraffic.com showed.

"It's an actor who has the capabilities, the will, and the tools to show off in this way," Jespersen said. It was too early to say if the incidents in Denmark and Norway were linked, he said.

The Norwegian security police, PST, told Reuters the situation was "still unclear" and that it was in "routine contact with actors both nationally and internationally."

Lithuania, Estonia and Poland

Lithuania asked NATO in August for more air defences after two military drones crashed into its territory from Belarus, and Denmark said on Tuesday that drones that halted flights at its main airport on Monday were linked to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.

Estonia said on Friday that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets had violated its airspace for 12 minutes before being escorted out by NATO fighter jets.

Poland said some 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on the night of September 9-10, prompting NATO jets to shoot some of them down and the alliance to beef up the defence of Europe's eastern flank.