Danish airport closes again after suspected new drone sighting
COPENHAGEN: A suspected drone sighting briefly shuttered a Danish airport on Friday for the second time in a few hours, after the country’s prime minister said the flights were part of “hybrid attacks” that may be linked to Russia.
Drones have been seen flying over several Danish airports since Wednesday, causing one of them to close for hours, after a sighting earlier this week prompted Copenhagen airport to shut down.
That followed a similar incident in Norway, 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.
“Over recent days, Denmark has been the victim of hybrid attacks,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a video message on social media on Thursday — referring to a form of unconventional warfare.
She warned that such drone flights “could multiply.”
Investigators said they had so far failed to identify those responsible, but Frederiksen stressed: “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. Its embassy in Copenhagen called them “a staged provocation,” in a post on social media.
Denmark’s Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard earlier said the aim of the attack was “to spread fear, create division and frighten us.”
He added that Copenhagen would acquire new enhanced capabilities to “detect” and “neutralize drones.”
Denmark will on Friday join other EU countries, mostly along the eastern border with Russia, in the first talks on proposals to build a “wall” of anti-drone defenses in the face of the tensions with Moscow.
