Danish defense ministry reports renewed drone sightings at military facilities

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BERLIN (AP) — The Danish defense ministry said Saturday that “drones have been observed at several of Danish defense facilities” overnight Friday into Saturday. The renewed drone sightings come after there were several drone sightings in the Nordic country earlier this week, with some of them temporarily shutting down Danish airports.

Several local media reported that one or more drones were seen near or above the military Karup Air Base, which is Denmark’s biggest military base.

The Defense ministry refused to confirm the sighting at Karup or elsewhere and said that “for reasons of operational security and the ongoing investigation, the Defense Command Denmark does not wish to elaborate further on drone sightings.”

The ministry clarified later to public broadcaster DR that reports of additional drone activity at Skrydstrup Air Base and the Jutland Dragoon Regiment referred to sightings that did not occur overnight from Friday to Saturday. Its earlier statement seemed to imply that timing and was widely reported.

The ministry could not be reached immediately for confirmation, but a press release on its website referring to the incidents at the base and barracks was dated Thursday — though it did not directly confirm the sightings took place that day.

Tensions have been running high in Denmark in recent days after various drone activity, and hundreds of possible sightings reported by concerned citizens could not officially be confirmed. Nonetheless, the public has been asked to report all suspicious activity to police.

On Saturday, DR and several other local media reported that in Karup, there were drones in the air both inside and outside the fence of the air base at around 8 p.m. Friday, quoting Simon Skelkjær, the duty manager at the Central and West Jutland Police.

DR said that for a period of time the airspace was closed to civil air traffic, but that did not have much practical significance as there is currently no civil aviation in Karup.

The repeated unexplained drone activity, including over four Danish airports overnight Wednesday into Thursday and a similar incident at Copenhagen Airport, has raised concerns about security in northern Europe amid suspected growing Russian aggression.

Flights were grounded in the Danish capital for hours on Monday night,

The goal of the flyovers is to sow fear and division, Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard said Thursday, adding that the country will seek additional ways to neutralize drones, including proposing legislation to allow infrastructure owners to shoot them down.

For the upcoming European Union summit next week, the Danish defense ministry confirmed on X that the country's government had accepted an offer from Sweden to “lend Denmark a military anti-drone capability,” without giving further details.

In neighboring Germany, several drones were reported in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark, from Thursday into Friday night.

The state's interior minister, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, said that “the state police are currently significantly stepping up their drone defense measures, also in coordination with other northern German states,” German news agency dpa reported. She did not provide any further details, citing the ongoing investigations.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters on Saturday afternoon that his ministry is working on new anti-drone rules that aim to detect, intercept and — if needed — also shoot down drones.

On Thursday, European defense ministers agreed to develop a “drone wall” along their borders with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that in regard to frequent attacks on infrastructure and data networks, “we are not at war, but we are no longer living in peace either.” He did not allude to a certain country as the actor behind those attacks.

“Drone flights, espionage, the Tiergarten murder, massive threats to individual public figures, not only in Germany but also in many other European countries. Acts of sabotage on a daily basis. Attempts to paralyze data centers. Cyberattacks," he added during a speech at the Schwarz Ecosystem Summit in Berlin on Friday, dpa reported.

What became known as the “Tiergarten murder” in Germany refers to the case of Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of the Aug. 23, 2019, killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany. Krasikov was returned to Russia as part of a massive prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia in 2024.

Later on Saturday, Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, said at a NATO meeting in Riga, Latvia, that “multiple allies, including Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Romania have experienced airspace violation by Russia. These acts are escalatory, reckless and endanger lives.”

“Russia bears full responsibility for these actions,” Dragone said. “Today, I express full and unequivocal solidarity with all allies whose airspace has been breached. The alliance’s response has been robust and will only continue to strengthen,” he said.

“The immediate priority today is clearly air defense,” the President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said. “Russia continues a pattern of provocations, most recently recklessly violating the airspace of Poland and Estonia. And here I really want to thank and welcome NATO’s immediate response commencing Eastern Sentry," he said in reference to the operation to protect NATO's eastern flank.

“This serves as a tangible example of NATO’s decisive response.”

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Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.