Large drones that flew over Copenhagen airport for hours and caused it to shut down constituted the “most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure” to date, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said yesterday.
Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo reopened early yesterday, hours after unidentified drones in their airspace caused dozens of flights to be diverted or canceled, disrupting thousands of passengers.
“This is part of the development we have recently observed with other drone attacks, airspace violations and cyberattacks targeting European airports,” Frederiksen said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
She referred to similar drone incidents in Poland and Romania, and the violation by Russian fighter jets of Estonia’s airspace. The governments of Poland, Estonia and Romania have pointed the finger at Moscow, which has brushed off the allegations.
Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster DR she could “not rule out” that Russia was behind the drone activity.
Moscow denied involvement, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticizing her remarks as “unfounded accusations.”
However, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said it was “too early to say” whether the drone flights were linked to recent Russian violations of the alliance’s airspace.
“The Danes are at this moment exactly assessing what happened, to make sure what is behind this. We are in very close contact on this. So it is too early to say,” Rutte said, adding that he had spoken to the Danish prime minister.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on X denounced what he said was a Russian violation of Denmark’s airspace.
Danish police said they had been unable to identify the drone operator.
“The number, size, flight patterns, time over the airport. All this together … indicates that it is a capable actor. Which capable actor, I do not know,” Copenhagen Chief Police Inspector Jens Jespersen told reporters.
“It was an actor that had the capacity, the will and the tools to make their presence known,” he said.
Danish intelligence said the Scandinavian country was facing a “high threat of sabotage.”
“Someone may not necessarily want to attack us, but rather stress us out and see how we react,” said Flemming Drejer, director of operations at Denmark’s intelligence service PET.
Jespersen said “several large drones” flew over Copenhagen Airport for more than three hours on Monday evening.
Police decided not to shoot down the drones for safety reasons.
“You have to think very carefully before starting to try to take down such big drones,” Jespersen said.
If they were to fall to the ground, “there are planes with people, fuel and also housing on several sides of the airport.”
Jespersen said it was not known where the drones were being controlled from, but that it could have been from many kilometers away.