{"id":27085,"date":"2026-02-28T01:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/27085\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T01:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:27:08","slug":"stockholm-says-drone-headed-toward-french-carrier-was-probably-russian-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/27085\/","title":{"rendered":"Stockholm says drone headed toward French carrier was probably Russian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was potentially targeted on its first ever visit to Sweden by a drone &#8220;probably&#8221; launched by a passing Russian military vessel, the Swedish defense ministry said Friday. Photo courtesy U.S. Navy<\/p>\n<p>Feb. 27 (UPI) &#8212; The Swedish military intercepted a drone headed toward France&#8217;s nuclear-powered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Charles_de_Gaulle\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Charles de Gaulle\" class=\"tpstyle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Charles de Gaulle<\/a> aircraft carrier that was docked in Malmo ahead of NATO exercises in the region and the North Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p>Defense Minister Pal Jonson said there was likely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c1mj3e2nz8ko\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a &#8220;strong link&#8221;<\/a> between the drone, which the Swedish forces countered with electronic warfare measures after the French military spotted it about 7 nautical miles out on Thursday, and a Russian naval vessel transiting from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea via the Oresund Strait.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Armed Forces acted <a href=\"https:\/\/kyivindependent.com\/russian-drone-intercepted-en-route-to-french-aircraft-carrier-sweden-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">quickly and decisively<\/a> in jamming the drone. Contact with the drone was subsequently lost, and its current status is unknown,&#8221; the Swedish military told the public service broadcast network, SVT.<\/p>\n<p>Russia denied having anything to do with the incident with Kremlin spokesman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Dmitry-Peskov\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Dmitry Peskov\" class=\"tpstyle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dmitry Peskov<\/a> calling the allegations &#8220;absurd.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>Paris, with its defense minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, due on board the Charles de Gaulle on Friday, dismissed the incident, saying it proved the &#8220;robustness&#8221; of Sweden&#8217;s defenses and had not affected the mission.<\/p>\n<p>Gen. Dominique Trinquand, former chief of France&#8217;s military mission to the United Nations, told French media he wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if it turned out that the drone was connected to intelligence operations being carried out in the area by Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That they would do so while the French aircraft carrier is deployed there is certainly a strategic signal,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Charles de Gaulle heads up the French Navy&#8217;s flagship carrier strike force but is under the protection of the militaries of France&#8217;s partners whenever it is in their territorial waters.<\/p>\n<p>The carrier is in Sweden for La Fayette &#8217;26, a series of NATO exercises to counter a so-called hybrid war that Russia has been waging for several years and which has escalated since its full-scale invasion of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Russia-Ukraine-War\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"War in Ukraine\" class=\"tpstyle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ukraine<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday&#8217;s incident came after months of reports of unidentified drones near military facilities, disruption to civil aviation, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/World-News\/2025\/09\/25\/Denmark-experts-behind-drone-disruption\/1521758798427\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">several instances in Scandinavian<\/a> and Baltic nations that forced the closure of airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, and drone incursions into European airspace.<\/p>\n<p>Overflight by drones in December of France&#8217;s base for its Triomphant submarine-launched nuclear-missile deterrent in Brittany remains under investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Historic-February-moments-through-the-years_1_1.jpg\" style=\"width: 100%;\" width=\"449\" height=\"299\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t Former South African president Nelson Mandela speaks to reporters outside of the White House in Washington on October 21, 1999. Mandela was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/2020\/02\/11\/On-This-Day-Nelson-Mandela-released-from-prison\/4451581219139\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">famously released<\/a> from prison in South Africa on February 11, 1990. Photo by Joel Rennich\/UPI | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/News_Photos\/lp\/9e897326c85a1a00110208075f3373f7\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">License Photo<\/a>\t\t \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was potentially targeted on its first ever visit to Sweden by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[2267,229,10190,4579,131,132,1270,4583,1827],"class_list":{"0":"post-27085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-charles-de-gaulle","9":"tag-defense","10":"tag-dmitry-peskov","11":"tag-drones","12":"tag-stockholm","13":"tag-sweden","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-war-in-ukraine","16":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}