Denmark has said that the drone incursions that shut down two major Nordic airports overnight constituted an “attack.” The incident comes soon after more than a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace, with some being shot down, and following a flight into Estonian airspace by Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors. Amid a spike in tensions between Moscow and NATO, the Kremlin has denied it was behind last night’s Nordic drone incident.
The drones began to appear in the airspace over the airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, the two busiest in the Nordic region, late on Monday, local time. Both hubs were shut for hours last night, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded, and leading to flights being diverted, delayed, or cancelled.
According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, at least “three big drones” were involved in the Copenhagen incident, while local police put the number at two or three. Reportedly, the drones in Denmark came from multiple directions, turning their lights on and off for several hours before disappearing.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the country’s broadcaster TV2 that the disruption at Copenhagen Airport was “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.” Frederiksen continued: “It says something about the times we live in and what we as a society must be prepared to deal with.” The prime minister said that she was “not ruling out any options in relation to who is behind this.” She added: “It is clear that this fits in with the developments we have seen recently with other drone attacks, airspace violations, and hacker attacks on European airports.”
Other Danish authorities are also speaking openly about the incident as an attack, a description also used by Anne Tønnes, director at Copenhagen Police.
TV2 has also reported that the Danish Armed Forces are involved in the investigation into the Copenhagen drones.
Danish authorities have not offered any more details on the incursion, including whether the drones were launched from the land or from the sea. However, Danish police chief superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters that whoever was responsible is “what we would call a capable operator.” Jespersen continued: “It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will, and the tools to show off in this way.”
Russian involvement hasn’t been ruled out by Danish authorities, Prime Minister Frederiksen told reporters today.
“I cannot rule out in any way that it is Russia. We have seen drones over Poland that should not have been there. We have seen activity in Romania. We have seen violations of Estonian airspace. We have seen hacker attacks on European airports over the weekend. Now there have been drones in Denmark, and it appears that there have been drones in Oslo and Norway as well. Therefore, I can only say that, in my view, this is a serious attack on critical Danish infrastructure.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has meanwhile stated his opinion that Russia was behind the Nordic drone incursions.
A statement on President Zelensky’s website said that he had spoken about the incident with International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva. The pair “discussed Russia’s violations of the airspace of NATO member states, including … in Copenhagen.” The statement continued: “If there is no resolute response from the allies — both states and institutions — to these provocations, Russia will continue its aggressive actions, testing the societies of European and NATO countries.”
European Union foreign policy spokesperson Anitta Hipper agreed with the assessment that the Nordic drone incursions conformed with a pattern of nefarious Russian activity.
“We have seen the incident, and we’re in full solidarity with Denmark, but also with Norway,” Hipper said. “We commend them already for the swift action, so we still need to wait for the final outcome. But what we have seen throughout the last weeks points to Russia in terms of their reckless actions in at least three member states — first Poland, then Romania, and most recently, Estonia. What we have seen in terms of Russia is that they have not ‘accidentally’ violated the airspaces of EU member states, but this was an intentional violation of the European airspace, and here we see a clear pattern. Russia is testing the European borders, also probing our resolve and undermining our security.”
Russia has denied involvement in the Copenhagen drone incident. “We hear unfounded accusations from there every time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Perhaps a party that takes a serious, responsible position shouldn’t make such unfounded accusations time and again,” Peskov added.
Whoever might have been behind it, the EU is clearly taking the incident seriously.
This Friday, Denmark will join other EU members to discuss a “drone wall.” Other countries involved are Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.
Meanwhile, today saw a NATO meeting to discuss the Russian incursion into Estonian airspace last Friday, which involved three Russian MiG-31s. NATO jets were scrambled to intercept them under the alliance’s new Operation Eastern Sentry, created to protect Eastern Europe.
The meeting today ended with NATO declaring that Russia’s actions over Estonia were “escalatory, risk miscalculation [and] endanger lives.” The “dangerous” violation last week was “part of a wider pattern of increasingly irresponsible Russian behavior,” the alliance added.
After that meeting, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that Russia has violated Norwegian airspace three times this year.
“The incidents in Norway are smaller in scope than the violations against Estonia, Poland, and Romania, in terms of both location and duration. They are, nevertheless, incidents that we view very seriously,” Støre said.
Two of the incidents Støre mentioned occurred over the sea northeast of Vardø in April and August, while the third took place over an uninhabited area along the land border in East Finnmark in July. The border violations involved Russian Su-24 Fencer and Su-33 Flanker combat jets and an L-410 Turbolet transport aircraft. Each violation lasted between one and four minutes. Støre noted that Norway could not determine if they were deliberate or “due to navigation errors.” “Regardless of the reason, this is not acceptable, and we have made that clear to the Russian authorities,” Støre said.
The NATO meeting today was the second time in two weeks that the North Atlantic Council had met under Article 4. Article 4 states that “the Parties [to the alliance] will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
The first meeting was called after the large-scale violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones.
The alliance today stressed that it would “reinforce our capabilities and strengthen our deterrence and defense posture, including through effective air defense. Russia should be in no doubt: NATO and allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves, and deter all threats from all directions. We will continue to respond in the manner, timing, and domain of our choosing.”
When asked today about the Nordic drone incursions, NATO Secretary General Rutte said it was too early to talk about what had caused the disruption.
Meanwhile, the language used by NATO officials has become more forceful since the latest spate of airspace incursions kicked off.
Officials are now talking more openly about the prospect of shooting down Russian aircraft, having already used fighter jets to bring down Russian drones over Poland.
Referring to the Russian incursion into Estonia last Friday, Rutte said it was assessed that the MiG-31s posed “no immediate threat,” and so they were escorted out of Estonian airspace without a stronger reaction.
In the future, however, Rutte said that NATO “will act decisively and quickly” if the need arises. “[The] Russians know … that if necessary, we will not hesitate,” he added.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com