COPENHAGEN: France, Germany and Sweden said on Monday they will send military personnel and anti-drone systems to Denmark to boost security at this week's European summits in Copenhagen, after drone incursions that forced Denmark to shut several airports. Denmark is due to host EU leaders on Wednesday, followed by a summit on Thursday of the wider, 47-member European Political Community. It has already said it has increased security around the events after the drone sightings. Drones disrupted air traffic at six Danish airports last week, including at Copenhagen, the Nordic region's busiest, in what Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called a hybrid attack on her nation.
Denmark has stopped short of saying definitively who it believes is responsible, but Frederiksen has suggested it could be Moscow, calling Russia the primary "country that poses a threat to European security". The Kremlin denies involvement. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a post on social media X that Sweden would send "Counter-UAS" - Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems - and that his country separately on Sunday had also shipped "a handful" of radar systems to Denmark.
Swedish police separately said they would send a significant force to Copenhagen at Denmark's request, and that Norwegian law enforcement officers would also take part. France announced that it would be sending a Fennec military helicopter, as well as a team of 35 staff who would handle aspects of anti-drone work.
Germany will deploy around 40 soldiers to Copenhagen to help with detecting, identifying and defending against drones, a Berlin government spokesperson told reporters in a briefing on the EU summit on Monday. The operation will last until October 7 and the soldiers will carry the appropriate equipment with them, the spokesperson said.
On Sunday, Denmark ordered a ban on civilian drone flights, after drones were observed at several military facilities overnight. The Nato military alliance on Saturday said it was upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea in response to the situation in Denmark, and a German air defence frigate arrived in Copenhagen on Sunday to assist with airspace surveillance.
Drone sorties earlier this week forced Denmark to shut airports, including a nearly four-hour closure of Copenhagen Airport on Monday. Denmark has called the drones part of a "hybrid attack". It has stopped short of saying definitively who it believes is responsible, but Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has suggested it could be Moscow, calling Russia the primary "country that poses a threat to European security". The Kremlin denies blame.
"We are currently in a difficult security situation, and we must ensure the best possible working conditions for the armed forces and the police when they are responsible for security during the EU summit," Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement on Sunday.
Meanwhile, New drone fragments were found in the eastern Romanian county of Tulcea neighbouring Ukraine on Monday, Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu said. Defence ministry experts were collecting the drone parts for further investigation.
Ukraine has offered to build a joint aerial defence shield with its allies to protect against threats from Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday. "Ukraine proposes to Poland and all our partners to build a joint, fully reliable shield against Russian aerial threats," he said in an address to the Warsaw Security Forum delivered via video link. "This is possible. Ukraine can counter all kinds of Russian drones and missiles and if we act together in the region we will have enough weapons and production capacity." Ukraine has already said that its troops and engineers will train their Polish counterparts on countering drones.
Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, in one of the most sustained attacks on the capital since the full-scale war began. Ukraine's military said that Russia launched 595 drones and 48 missiles overnight and its air defences shot down 568 drones and 43 missiles. It noted that the main target of the strike was the capital Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack, which lasted more than 12 hours, killed four people, including a child, with two of the deaths occurring at a Kyiv cardiology clinic. — Reuters
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