By Christian Wienberg and Sanne Wass, Bloomberg News
Denmark is probing potential Russian involvement after enduring the second drone attack this week as authorities are bracing for the possibility of more incidents.
Large professional drones spotted at several airports and military air bases in Denmark disrupted flights and sparked a major police operation overnight. The airports are open now.
Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the government will discuss how to involve NATO allies in the response to what he called “hybrid attacks.” Speaking at a news conference in Copenhagen Thursday morning, Poulsen said “it’s definitely not a coincidence, it looks systematic.”
The events follow a four-hour shutdown Monday night at Copenhagen airport, Scandinavia’s busiest, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described as a “serious attack” on Danish critical infrastructure. She indicated Russia may have been behind that incident.
Danish police on Thursday raised its alert level to “heightened” nationwide and is preparing for potential further incidents, Thorkild Fogde, commissioner of the national police, told broadcaster DR.
A professional agent was behind the latest events, Poulsen said, citing the large size and number of drones, as well as the fact that they appeared in several places at the same time.
“There are countries, or actors who are interested in weakening our support for Ukraine,” Poulsen said. Still, “we don’t have basis to make a direct link to Russia.”
The Russian embassy in Copenhagen said “it firmly rejects the absurd speculations of involvement in the incidents,” which it called “a staged provocation,” according to an emailed statement.
Air traffic at Denmark’s third-largest airport in Aalborg, which is both a civilian and military facility, was temporarily suspended late Wednesday, the police said in a statement on Thursday. Drones were also spotted at airports in Esbjerg and Sonderborg, as well as the Skrydstrup Air Base, a military area used for maintenance work on fighter jets.
Billund Airport, Denmark’s second-largest, was also closed briefly early Thursday morning over reports of possible illegal drone activity, which authorities are still working to verify, according to a police spokesperson.
The incidents come ahead of a high-level meeting of European leaders in Copenhagen next week and are the latest to show the vulnerability of transport hubs to outside interference. A cyberattack on a key airline check-in system snarled travel at major European airports over the weekend, forcing staff to process passengers manually, triggering delays and cancellations.
Earlier this month, Poland shot down a number of drones from Russia and last week, three Russian fighter jets violated Estonia’s airspace.
Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told reporters that the events in Denmark should be seen in connection with other recent “deeply worrying” airspace incursions in Europe.
“The intention is to create division and to make us scared” and “to stress us and to test our boundaries,” he said. “The threat from hybrid attacks is here to stay.”
Denmark is one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters, having donated both large quantities of military equipment as well as funds to rebuild the war-damaged country. In June, Denmark signed a deal to become the first nation to allow Ukraine’s defense industry to set up operations on its soil and this month the Danish government said a Ukrainian company will start production of rocket fuel.
Danish authorities have now started an “intense investigation” together with the armed forces and the intelligence agency, according to the police. The Nordic country will now invest in new capacity to defend itself from drones and will also change legislation to restrict the use of drones in Danish airspace, Hummelgaard said.
Poulsen said Denmark is considering whether to invoke the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Article 4, which triggers consultations and can open a path to coordinated action among allies. It’s also considering other ways to involve NATO and has been in talks with the defense organization about the drones, he said.
The European Union can step up its ability to detect drones in the next year, though will need more time for full capacity to monitor and destroy threats, Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said in an interview with Euractiv on Wednesday.
The drones at Aalborg disappeared shortly before 1 a.m. local time on Thursday, after circling around the airport for more than three hours, police said. The shutdown of the airspace led to the diversion of four flights, a spokesperson told DR. The smaller airports didn’t have any scheduled flights overnight, according to police.
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—With assistance from Thomas Hall and Julia Janicki.
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