Denmark has barred civilian drones from its airspace before a European Union Summit, following reported sightings of drones at several military locations overnight on Saturday. The Nordic country has been on alert following a string of drone incidents over the past week, which have led to the closure of several airports.
The ban will remain in place from Monday through Friday of the coming week, when Denmark, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU for the second half of this year, will be hosting European leaders.
“We are currently in a difficult security situation, and we must ensure the best possible working conditions for the armed forces and the police when they are responsible for security during the EU summit,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement on Sunday.
In a statement earlier in the day, the country’s Ministry of Defence said it had “several capacities deployed” after the drone sighting, without elaborating on the deployment, the number of drones or the locations.
The latest incident comes a day after the NATO military alliance announced it was upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea with an air defence frigate in response to the drone incursion in Denmark.
In a statement sent to the Reuters news agency, NATO said it would “conduct even more enhanced vigilance with new multi-domain assets in the Baltic Sea region”.
It added that the new assets included “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms and at least one air-defence frigate”.
Copenhagen Airport was closed on Monday for several hours after several large drones were observed in its airspace. In the days that followed, five smaller Danish airports, both civilian and military, were also shut temporarily.
‘A hybrid attack’
The Danish transportation ministry said “all civilian drone flying in Danish airspace will be prohibited … to remove the risk that enemy drones can be confused with legal drones and vice versa.
“We cannot accept that foreign drones create uncertainty and disturbances in society, as we have experienced recently. At the same time, Denmark will host EU leaders in the coming week, where we will have extra focus on security,” Danish Minister for Transport Thomas Danielsen said in a statement.
“A violation of the prohibition can result in a fine or imprisonment for up to two years,” according to the statement.
Denmark will host EU leaders on Wednesday, followed by a summit on Thursday of the wider, 47-member European Political Community, set up to unite the EU with other friendly European countries after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Denmark has called the drones part of a “hybrid attack”. It has stopped short of saying definitively who it believes is responsible, but Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has suggested it could be Moscow, calling Russia the primary “country that poses a threat to European security”. The Kremlin denies blame.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week that Russian involvement could not be ruled out – an accusation that Moscow has already rejected.
A German air defence frigate arrived in Copenhagen on Sunday to assist with airspace surveillance during the high-profile events.
Meanwhile, the incursions come at the same time Estonia accused Russia last week of three MiG-31 fighter jets violating its airspace for 12 minutes before NATO Italian fighter jets escorted them out.
However, Russia has also denied that its jets have violated Estonia’s airspace.
Speaking at the UN on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hit out at accusations from the West, blaming it for scaremongering about the possibility of a “third world war”.
“Russia is being accused of almost planning to attack NATO and EU countries. President [Vladimir] Putin has repeatedly debunked these provocations,” he said.
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