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 suspicions.
Sightings of two or three large drones near Copenhagen airport late on Monday halted all take-offs and landin
gs for nearly four hours. Authorities in Norway also shut down the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours after a drone was seen.
Read more: Western Officials Say Russia Is Behind Campaign of Sabotage Across Europe
The shutdowns at the Nordic region's busiest airports leave tens of thousands of stranded passengers.
Denmark Not Ruling Out Anything
“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 dev
elopments 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 recently suspected Russian drone incursions int
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o 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 Zelenskiy, without providing evi
dence, that Russia was behind the Copenhagen airspace violation.
Suspicions of Russian involvement were ungrounded, Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said in a statement sent to Reuters. “The incide
nt in the sky above Copenhagen Airport reveals a clear desire to provoke NATO countries into a direct military confrontation with Russia,” he said.
Western security agencies have in recent years said hybrid threats, particularly from Russia, were becoming increasingly aggressive.
Such includes threats everything from physical sabotage of criticism
l infrastructure to disinformation campaigns, suspected espionage, and cyberattacks.
Moscow has consistently denied responsibility for any hybrid attack in Europe.
Drones Came From Different Directions, Then Disappeared
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 shown.
“It’s an actor who has the abilities, 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.