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Unidentified drones flew over Danish military sites including its biggest base during Friday night, the latest in a slew of sightings officials have called a “hybrid attack” and hinted at possible Russian involvement.
Drones were spotted at several military sites, a Danish military spokesperson told Agence France-Presse, refusing to provide other details.
Police said one to two drones were observed on Friday at about 8.15 pm (7.15pm local time) near and over Karup airbase, the country’s biggest base that houses all of the armed forces’ helicopters, airspace surveillance, flight school and support functions.
Karup is also home to parts of the defence command, according to the military’s website.
A police spokesperson, Simon Skelkjaer, said police could not comment on where the drones came from, adding: “We didn’t take them down.”
Police were cooperating with the military in their investigation, he said.
The Karup base shares its runways with the Midtjylland civilian airport, which was briefly closed though no flights were affected as none were scheduled at that hour, Skelkjaer said.
Mysterious drone observations across the Scandinavian country since Monday have prompted the closure of several airports.
Drone reports shut Oslo airport in Norway for several hours earlier in the week, after drone incursions in Polish and Romanian territory and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said on Thursday that “over recent days, Denmark has been the victim of hybrid attacks”.
Investigators have so far failed to identify those responsible, but the Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said on Thursday the flights appeared to be “the work of a professional actor”.
Frederiksen has pointed the finger at Russia: “There is one main country that poses a threat to Europe’s security, and it is Russia.”
Moscow said on Thursday it “firmly rejects” any suggestion it was involved in the Danish incidents. Its embassy in Copenhagen called them “a staged provocation” in a post on social media.
The Danish justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said earlier this week the aim of the attacks was “to spread fear, create division and frighten us”.
The drone flights began just days after Denmark announced it would acquire long-range precision weapons for the first time, as Russia would pose a threat “for years to come”.
Hummelgaard said Copenhagen would also acquire new enhanced capabilities to detect and neutralise drones.
Defence ministers from 10 EU countries agreed on Friday to make a “drone wall” a priority for the bloc. The EU defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said Europe needed to learn from Ukraine and swiftly build anti-drone defences.
“We need to move fast,” Kubilius told AFP. “And we need to move, taking all the lessons from Ukraine and making this drone wall together with Ukraine.”
Copenhagen will host an EU summit gathering heads of government on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Danish government said it had accepted Sweden’s offer of its anti-drone technology to ensure the meeting could go ahead without disruption.
