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LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep
UNIDENTIFIED DRONES HAVE been observed over Denmark’s biggest military base, the latest in a slew of sightings that officials have called a “hybrid attack”.
The mystery drone observations have prompted the closure of several airports across the Scandinavian country since Monday, when the first drones appeared.
“I can confirm that we had an incident around 8.15 pm (7.15pm Irish time) that lasted for some hours. One to two drones were observed outside and over the airbase,” duty officer Simon Skelsjaer said, referring to the Karup military base.
He 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 no commercial flights were scheduled at that hour, Skelsjaer said.
Drones were spotted at Denmark’s airports in Aalborg, Esbjerg, Sonderborg and at the Skrydstrup air base on Wednesday night before leaving on their own.
Aalborg airport, located in northern Denmark and one of the country’s biggest after Copenhagen, was shut down before reopening several hours later. A similar incident days earlier prompted Copenhagen airport to shut,
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday that “over recent days, Denmark has been the victim of hybrid attacks,” referring to unconventional warfare.
She referred to similar drone incidents in Poland and Romania and the violation by Russian fighter jets of Estonia’s airspace.
The governments of Poland, Estonia and Romania have pointed the finger at Moscow, which has brushed off the allegations.
Danish intelligence said the Scandinavian country was facing a “high threat of sabotage”.
Today, Russia has blasted the EU’s plans to beef up its defences against drones, saying the bloc’s response to unidentified unmanned aircraft crossing its borders would only increase tensions.
Defence ministers from around 10 EU countries on Friday agreed to make the so-called “drone wall” a priority for the bloc, after some member states were rattled by a string of airspace violations by Russia in recent weeks.
The meeting was convened by commissioner Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister, who estimated that the cost of creating the project would be in the range of “several billion euros, not hundreds of billions”.
“More or less we understand what we need to develop. How much it will cost – we shall see,” he said.
He said the ministers had backed a broad plan to bolster the EU’s eastern defences, the “priority” being to build a drone wall “with advanced detection, tracking, and interception capabilities.
“The repeated violations of our airspace are unacceptable,” he told reporters.
“The message is clear: Russia is testing the EU and NATO. And our response must be firm, united, and immediate.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the measures would lead to “an increase in military and political tensions on our continent,” according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
The ministry added that the plans amounted to “personal ambitions and political games of the EU’s ruling elites.”
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen made a first call for the “drone wall” in a keynote speech earlier this month, hours after NATO shot down Russian drones in Poland.
The EU also said it needs to learn from Ukraine, which encounters Russian drone swarms daily, and thus have developed cheaper solutions to intercept them.
Moscow denied breaching NATO’s airspace and called the EU’s reaction a “hysteria”, saying Russian pilots abide by international air navigation rules, adding there was no evidence the drones that have crossed the European airspace were Russian.
Meanwhile, Germany is reportedly considering allowing its military to shoot down drones amid the recent incursions around Europe.
The country has also reported a rise in suspicious drone sightings in recent times — the latest came late Friday in a northern state bordering Denmark.
Berlin had already announced plans to bolster its drone defence systems earlier this week to counter the growing Russian threat.
Tabloid Bild reported that, among measures planned, the government was considering allowing the armed forces to shoot down drones under certain conditions.
The military should be able to intervene if a drone poses a serious danger to human life or critical infrastructure and other measures would be insufficient, the paper said.
In such cases, decision-making powers would reportedly be transferred to the defence ministry. Such powers currently lie with the police.
Contacted by AFP, the interior ministry did not confirm the plan.
But speaking to the Rheinische Post newspaper, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that he wanted to overhaul air security laws so the military can help the police “especially in drone defence”.
“We are not only experiencing a turning point in military security, but also in civil defence and civil protection as a whole,” he said.
Additional reporting from © AFP 2025
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