Mystery drones over Denmark are 'hybrid attack,' defense minister says
LONDON -- Drone overflights again caused disruptions at Danish airports on Wednesday night, officials said, in the latest instance of unexplained drone sightings over sensitive facilities in the Scandinavian nation.
The latest incidents prompted the complete closure of Aalborg Airport -- which is also used by the Danish armed forces -- on the northern tip of Denmark's Zealand island, the Danish National Police said.
Drones were also reported over the southern cities of Esbjerg and Sonderborg, as well as over the Fighter Wing Skrydstrup air base, which is home to Danish F-16 fighter jets, Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said Thursday.
Finn Borch, the head of the Danish Security Intelligence Service, said Thursday that there they are unable to name a specific actor behind the drones.
"But we can say that this resembles a model of hybrid warfare we have seen elsewhere in Europe," Borch said during a press briefing. "I would remind you -- as some of you, of course, know -- that we assess the risk of Russian espionage in Denmark to be high, and we also assess the risk of Russian sabotage in Denmark to be high. We have seen this in other parts of Europe, and we must also expect to see it in Denmark."
The latest drone reports came after Copenhagen Airport was forced to close for several hours on Monday night, as was Oslo Airport in southern Norway. Both capitals sit along the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits, home to busy shipping lanes which connect the North Sea to the Baltic Sea.
"The goal of this kind of hybrid attack is to create fear," Hummelgaard said at a press briefing earlier Thursday. "It is to create discord and it is to make us afraid."
The origin or purpose of the drone flights is not yet clear. But Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a Thursday press conference, "There can be no doubt that everything points to this being the work of a professional actor when we are talking about such a systematic operation in so many locations at virtually the same time."
"This is what I would define as a hybrid attack using different types of drones," Poulsen said, adding that Copenhagen has options to respond through NATO, including by triggering the alliance's Article 4 which calls for a formal consultation with allies.
"We have no evidence to make the direct link to Russia," Poulsen added.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday that she considered the initial drone intrusions over Copenhagen and elsewhere to be "a serious attack against critical infrastructure in Denmark."
Asked if Russia -- drones from which have repeatedly violated NATO airspace in recent months -- should be considered responsible, Frederiksen said, "I cannot reject in any way that it could be Russia."
The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed the assertion.
"A country that takes a serious position should probably not make such baseless accusations time and time again," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
And on Thursday, the Russian embassy in Denmark suggested the drone sightings "are a staged provocation."
"Undoubtedly, they will be used as a pretext for further escalating tension in the interests of forces seeking by all means to prolong the Ukrainian conflict and extend it to other countries," the embassy wrote on Telegram. "The Russian side firmly rejects the absurd speculations of involvement in the incidents."
Danish Police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday that authorities were investigating several theories as to the origin of the drones, including that they may have been launched from nearby ships.
The Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reported that a Russian warship, the Aleksandr Shabalin, was spotted off Denmark’s coast with its transponder turned off in recent days.
When asked about the ship during a press briefing Thursday, Danish Police Commissioner Thorkild Fogde said he could not say anything specific about it, but that "data about such ships is now included in the investigation."
"It is my impression that the investigation is well-informed when it comes to international vessels," he sad. "We are in close cooperation with other authorities on this. The warship is included as one of the leads in the investigation."
Danish authorities identified three tankers with links to Russia -- the Astrol 1, Pushpa and Oslo Carrier 3 -- as possible launch points, Reuters reported.
Of the three, only the Pushpa was close to Aalborg on Wednesday night when the latest drone overflights were reported.
As of Thursday morning, open-source maritime tracking websites showed the Pushpa sailing southwest through the North Sea toward the English Channel, with its eventual destination listed as Vadinar in India.
The Ukrainian government's "War Sanctions" website lists the Pushpa as part of Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" of tankers -- vessels that are often uninsured and with unclear ownership which Moscow uses to evade international sanctions.
The Puspha also uses the name Boracay and sails under the flag of Benin, according to the Ukrainian government.
The Danish government is planning to "acquire new capabilities for detection" and to present a bill that will "provide increased opportunities for infrastructure owners to also shoot down drones," Hummelgaard said Thursday.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Thursday that he spoke with Frederiksen "about the drone situation, which we take very seriously."
"NATO allies and Denmark are working together on how we can ensure the safety and security of our critical infrastructure," Rutte wrote in a post to X.
ABC News' Patrick Reevell, Morgan Winsor and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
