The Danish prime minister has stated the nation was subjected to the “most critical assault on Danish essential infrastructure thus far” after a drone incursion shut Copenhagen airport for a number of hours.
Mette Frederiksen stated authorities have been nonetheless investigating who was behind the suspected hybrid assault, however she stated she couldn’t rule out Russia.
Moscow has denied any involvement. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, accused Frederiksen of creating “unfounded accusations”.
Danish police stated two or three massive drones that have been seen on Monday night time near the airport, which can also be the primary airport for southern Sweden, appeared to have been flown by a “succesful operator” who was seeking to present that that they had specific capabilities. No suspects have thus far been recognized.
The drones in Denmark got here from a number of instructions, police stated, turning their lights on and off for a number of hours earlier than disappearing.
Oslo airport, Norway’s principal aviation hub, was additionally compelled to shut for 3 hours after two drones have been noticed there.
Tens of hundreds of passengers have been stranded within the Nordic area by the 2 incidents and flights needed to be diverted. Authorities in Denmark and Norway are investigating whether or not the 2 sightings have been associated.
The Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, accused Russia of violating Norwegian airspace 3 times in current months.
Mette Frederiksen stated the incident needed to be seen ‘within the context of every part else that’s occurring in Europe’. {Photograph}: Emil Nicolai Helms/EPA
Frederiksen stated in an announcement it was a mirrored image of “the instances we stay in and what we as a society should be capable to deal with”.
“The police assess that this can be a succesful actor and the Copenhagen police are working carefully with PET [the Danish security and intelligence agency], the Danish armed forces and worldwide companions on the investigation, which is in full swing,” she stated.
“We’re clearly not ruling out any choices in relation to who’s behind it. And it’s clear that this suits in with the developments we’ve been capable of observe lately with different drone assaults, violations of airspace and hacker assaults on European airports.”
She stated in an interview it needed to be seen “within the context of every part else that’s occurring in Europe”.
“Now we have seen drones over Poland that ought to not have been there, we’ve seen exercise in Romania, violations of Estonian airspace, we’ve a hacker assault on European airports over the weekend and now drones in Denmark and Norway,” she instructed the Danish broadcaster DR on Tuesday morning.
“Due to this fact, I can solely say that that is in my eyes a critical assault on Danish essential infrastructure.”
She stated the incursion was meant to “disrupt and create unrest. To create concern. See how far you’ll be able to go and check the bounds.”
She added: “I can’t in any means deny that it’s Russia. We’re seeing a variety of hybrid assaults and sabotage and tried sabotage. What precisely has taken place in Denmark, the authorities at the moment are investigating.”
Her Norwegian counterpart, Gahr Støre, stated in an announcement: “Russia has violated Norwegian airspace on three events this spring and summer season.
“We can’t decide whether or not this was carried out deliberately or on account of navigation errors. Whatever the trigger, this isn’t acceptable.”
He described the three Norwegian incidents this yr as “smaller in scope” than these in Estonia, Poland and Romania, however they got here after greater than 10 years with no such incidents. He added: “They’re nonetheless incidents that we view very severely.”
skip previous publication promotion
Signal as much as Headlines Europe
A digest of the morning’s principal headlines from the Europe version emailed direct to you each week day
Privateness Discover: Newsletters could include details about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded by exterior events. If you happen to would not have an account, we’ll create a visitor account for you on theguardian.com to ship you this text. You’ll be able to full full registration at any time. For extra details about how we use your information see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.
after publication promotion
Police and members of the Danish safety and intelligence service (PET) examine an space close to Copenhagen airport on Tuesday after the drone sightings. {Photograph}: Steven Knap/EPA
Two of the incidents have been over sea areas north-east of Vardø, which is near the Norwegian border with Russia, and the third was in an uninhabited space alongside the land border in East Finnmark. Gahr Støre stated the border violations lasted between one and 4 minutes. Based on the Norwegian authorities, the primary incident, on 25 April, concerned a Russian SU-24 fighter jet; the second, on 24 July, concerned a Russian L410 Turbolet plane; and the third, on 18 August, concerned a Russian SU-33 fighter jet.
Individually, on Monday night time, a pair from Singapore, vacationers of their 50s and 60s, have been reportedly arrested for flying a drone in central Oslo. The drone is being examined by authorities and there’s no suspicion that it’s associated to the drone sightings at Oslo or Copenhagen airports.
Jens Jespersen, a Danish police chief superintendent, stated of the airport drone incident: “Now we have concluded that this was what we’d name a succesful operator. It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the desire and the instruments to point out off on this means.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claimed Russia was behind the Copenhagen incident. Danish police declined to touch upon the declare.
Among the many theories being investigated by police is that the drones could have been launched from ships. Copenhagen airport is a brief distance from the Baltic and one of many world’s busiest transport lanes the place a whole bunch of Russian “shadow fleet” ships are understood to be passing by, carrying crude oil on which sanctions have been imposed.
Jacob Kaarsbo, a former chief analyst on the Danish defence intelligence company, stated launch from a kind of vessels within the Baltic was “the most definitely choice”. The drones, he stated, have been fixed-wing drones, about 2.5 metres (8ft) large, which might have required a particular launch mechanism, that means that it was most definitely the work of a state actor.
“Now we have seen Russia launch drones from shadow fleet ships earlier than,” Kaarsbo stated, citing a current incident in German waters. “Now we have seen this modus operandi earlier than the place they use shadow fleet ships to launch drones, to do reconnaissance, or on this case to disturb public order.”
Though bigger fashions are typically capable of journey longer distances, Kaarsbo stated it was nonetheless unlikely a drone would have made it from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to Copenhagen airport with out detection.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Fee, stated she had spoken to Frederiksen in regards to the Copenhagen incident, writing on social media: “Whereas the info are nonetheless being established, it’s clear that we’re witnessing a sample of ongoing challenges at our borders.”
Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary common, stated it was too early to say whether or not the incident in Denmark was related to Russian violations of airspace elsewhere in Europe.
There have been a variety of disruptions at European airports in current days. On Friday, a cyber-attack on check-in and boarding methods led to issues at London Heathrow, Berlin and Brussels.
