Denmark reports new drone sightings; NATO boosts Baltic Sea vigilance

Copenhagen, Denmark – The Denmark Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that it had again observed drones in several of the locations of its armed forces overnight, one day after the NATO alliance announced that it would improve its vigilance in the Baltic Sea region.

The ministry said in a statement that he had “several capacities deployed” after drone observations from Saturday evening. He did not offer other details on deployment details, the number of drones or locations.

This is the last activity of unexplained drones after several observations, including more than five Danish airports last week, which made concerns concerning security in Northern Europe in the midst of an increasing Russian aggression.

After a meeting of NATO in Riga, in Latvia, on Saturday, Colonel Martin O’Donnell, the spokesman for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, announced that “we will proceed with an even more improved vigilance with new multi-domain assets in the Baltic Sea region, which includes Denmark, under Baltic Sentry.”

He also said that NATO leaders were in constant contact with Danish officials following the drone’s observations.

While Denmark is preparing for the next European Union summit in Copenhagen, the Danish Ministry of Transport said on Sunday that “all flying civilian drones in Danish airspace would be prohibited” from Monday to Friday 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 recently experienced. At the same time, Denmark will welcome EU leaders in the coming week, where we will focus more on security,” said Danish Minister Thomas Danielsen in a press release.

“A violation of the prohibition can lead to a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years,” said the press release.

The prohibition does not apply to theft of military drones, to drones used by state aviation, including police and emergency drones, as well as municipal and regional drone operations and related to health.

Sunday afternoon, the Danish Defense Ministry announced that the German air defense frigate, FSG Hamburg, arrived in Copenhagen.

“Here, the ship will contribute to strengthening Denmark surveillance in airspace as part of the next EU summit in Copenhagen,” the ministry said in a statement. “The German frigate is part of the Baltic Sentry activity of NATO, which aims to strengthen the presence of NATO along the eastern flank of the Alliance.”

In addition, Germany said that following a request from Denmark, its armed forces would provide military support for the next EU summit through “capacities of small aircraft systems”, also known as C-SUAS, which are detection systems that use radar, optics and acoustic technologies.

Sweden had already announced earlier that it “would give Denmark a military anti-drone capacity” without giving more details.

Tensions have been raised in Denmark in recent days after drone activity reports, and hundreds of possible observations reported by concerned citizens who could not be officially confirmed. However, the public was invited to report all suspicious activities to the police.

The Danish Minister of Judge Peter Hummelgaard said on September 25 that the objective of overflies was to sow fear and division, adding that the country will seek additional means of neutralizing drones, in particular by proposing legislation to allow infrastructure owners to shoot them down.

Although it is not clear which is behind the activity of the drone, the Prime Minister of Denmark and Secretary General of NATO said last week that Russian participation could not be excluded.

The Russian embassy in Denmark rejected the allegations of Moscow’s involvement last week in incidents.

Addressing Russian media in comments published on Sunday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that any NATO attempt to shoot down Russian or Belarusian planes would be greeted by an “immediate response”.

“Let them try, let them shoot. Or they shoot something Russian on Kaliningrad. Then, of course, we will have to fight, as they say in Russia, with all that we have. Is it necessary? No,” he said, as NATO would slaughter his helicopter when he flies near the Polish border.

The release of Lukashenko’s comments intervened after the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that his nation did not intend to attack Europe, but that he was going to set up a “decisive response” to any assault.

“I think that people will regret a lot if they commit the most obvious violation of our territorial integrity and our territorial sovereignty,” said Lavrov, including “attempts to shoot down … any object in general on our territory, in our air space”.