{"id":93382,"date":"2025-09-29T21:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T21:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93382\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T21:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T21:23:09","slug":"denmark-calls-in-nato-help-after-series-of-drone-incursions-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93382\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark calls in Nato help after series of drone incursions \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denmark<\/a> is receiving security assistance from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato)<\/a> allies before a high-level meeting of European leaders in Copenhagen this week after a wave of drone incursions that authorities say may be linked to Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Germany, France and Sweden are sending reinforcements, with troops, anti-drone capabilities, radar systems and a helicopter among the support dispatched to the Danish capital after a string of drone incidents disrupted civilian and military sites over the past week.<\/p>\n

The sightings of large, professional-grade drones forced the temporary closure of several Danish airports, among them the country\u2019s main hub in Copenhagen. Over the weekend, military authorities again reported new activity near several defence facilities.<\/p>\n

The incidents have triggered a major police investigation and led the government to impose a five-day ban on civilian drones to avoid confusion with potential hostile activity.<\/p>\n

\"DanishDanish ministers speak after a briefing on drones at the ministry of justice. Photograph: Thomas Traasdahl\/Ritzau Scanpix\/AFP <\/p>\n

European Union leaders are due to gather in Copenhagen for an informal summit on Wednesday and a meeting of the European Political Community on Thursday, bringing together a broader group of European leaders.<\/p>\n

Although investigators have yet to identify the source of the incursions, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has linked it to Russia\u2019s efforts to destabilise Europe, a statement Russia denies.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin wants to divide us,\u201d Mr Frederiksen said in a post on Facebook on Monday, naming Russia as the primary country threatening Europe\u2019s security. \u201cNo country can handle a hybrid war alone. That is why we have our strong alliances. The EU and Nato.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other European countries including Poland, Estonia and Romania have also suffered unprecedented airspace violations this month, prompting European warnings to the Kremlin that they\u2019re ready to respond with full force, including potentially shooting down planes.<\/p>\n

German defence minister Boris Pistorius, speaking at a security conference in Warsaw on Monday, criticised the recent incursions as unacceptable, calling them \u201can irresponsible provocation in times of already heightened tensions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is becoming more and more of a threat to Nato. It is testing Nato allies with growing frequency and intensity,\u201d he said. \u201cPutin deliberately attempts to undermine European security and the territorial integrity of European nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA mobile radar installation at a Danish military site on the coast of Oresund, the sea between Denmark and Sweden. Photograph: Steven Knap\/Ritzau Scanpix\/AP <\/p>\n

Sweden, Germany and France are all providing anti-drone capabilities to support security during the summit in Copenhagen, and Nato is deploying the German frigate Hamburg. About 40 German soldiers have been sent to Denmark, officials in Berlin said on Monday. France has dispatched a contingent of 35 personnel, and a helicopter, the country\u2019s defence ministry said.<\/p>\n

Sweden has also lent \u201cpowerful radar systems\u201d to Denmark, prime minister Ulf Kristersson said in a post on X on Monday.<\/p>\n

Ukraine stands ready to help allies with anti-drone expertise and technologies, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday, addressing the Warsaw forum via a remote connection. He suggested Russia may have used tankers at sea to launch drones over European capitals.<\/p>\n

At the summit in Copenhagen, leaders will discuss security and defence against Russia, including the creation and financing of a so-called \u201cdrone wall\u201d to protect the bloc\u2019s eastern flank. It comes after countries on the EU\u2019s eastern parts met virtually on Friday, agreeing to start work on conceptional and technical roadmap.<\/p>\n

Still, Mr Pistorius warned it will take at least three to four years to realise plans for such a concept, and urged countries not to wait that long to invest more in drone-defence capabilities.<\/p>\n

Apart from reinforcement from allies, the Danish government has leased and procured additional anti-drone equipment that will arrive today or soon thereafter, defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters in Copenhagen. While Danish police has made \u201cextensive preparations\u201d for the EU summit, \u201cwe must acknowledge that we have not had all the necessary tools\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Denmark still do not have concrete evidence to conclude who was behind the drone attacks and where the drones came from, said Thorkild Fogde, national police commissioner, speaking at the same briefing. That is despite police having spent the past seven days investigating the incidents, analysing data from telecommunications, radars and ships, as well as witness statements, video material and CCTV footage from airports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing we would have wanted more than for this investigation to have already produced very concrete results,\u201d Fogde said. \u201cBut unfortunately, it has not.\u201d \u2013 Bloomberg <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark is receiving security assistance from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) allies before a high-level meeting of European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,382,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,4897,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-93382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-denmark","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organisation-nato","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}