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Drones that flew over Denmark, crippling a major airport, were part of an alarming wave of Russian incursions in Europe, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday — calling it “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”
Frederiksen slammed Monday night’s incident as a clear assault on her nation and part of the recent incursions over Poland, Romania and Estonia.
While Frederiksen stopped short of directly blaming Moscow, she called it part of a sinister goal to “disrupt and create unrest” during a tense period when Russian UAVs regularly trespass Europe’s airspace.
“We are obviously not ruling out any options in relation to who is behind it,” she told reporters of the drones that brought Copenhagen Airport to a standstill for hours.
“And it is clear that this fits in with the developments we have observed recently with other drone attacks, violations of airspace, and hacker attacks on European airports,” she added.
“I certainly cannot deny in any way that it is Russia,” she said, calling it “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”
Following Frederiksen’s comments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of being behind the incident in Copenhagen, without providing evidence.
The Kremlin dismissed the claims that Russia was involved as “unfounded,” slamming it as a way to stoke up anti-Moscow sentiments in Europe.
“The incident in the sky above Copenhagen Airport reveals a clear desire to provoke NATO countries into a direct military confrontation with Russia,” Moscow’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said in a statement.
Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen said the drones that were spotted over Copenhagen Airport may have been launched from ships entering through the Baltic Sea.
While the incident remains under investigation, Jespersen said that whoever was behind the drones “has the capabilities, the will, and the tools to show off in this way.”
Norwegian police are also on the case after a separate drone incident took place the same evening at Oslo’s airport, shutting down nearly all the runways, according to local broadcaster NRK.
It all comes less than a week after Russian warplanes violated Estonia’s airspace in an “unprecedented” incursion, with Moscow drones entering Romania and Poland earlier this month.
With Post wires
