The airspace over the Danish airport of Aalborg was closed on Thursday evening at 23:40 local time and reopened 55 minutes later. According to the flight tracking platform FlightRadar24, at least two planes flying to Aalborg were unable to reach their final destination due to the temporary restrictions imposed - one returned to Amsterdam, and a flight from Copenhagen was canceled.
This is the second case in which unidentified drones have appeared in the area of Aalborg airport, near which a Danish military base is located. On the night of September 25, drones were spotted in the areas of the airports of Aalborg, Esbjerg and Sønderborg, as well as over the Skridstrup air base. All of them managed to leave the country again, and the place where they came from remains unknown for now. "The goal is to instill fear", said Justice Minister Peter Humelgaard in this regard. According to him, the threat of such actions will not go away.
Were the drones launched from a Russian warship?
During all these drone incidents in Denmark, the Russian warship "Alexander Shabalin" was located not far from the country's territorial waters, the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reported. The ship is based in the Kaliningrad region, but was spotted off the coast of the Danish island of Langeland a few days ago.
The ship had its automatic identification system (AIS) signal turned off, which is why it did not appear in shipping monitoring systems. However, the Danish military tracked its movement, Ekstra Bladet adds. The publication also notes that the distance from Langeland to the places where the drones were spotted in Denmark is from 70 to 270 kilometers.
"It is very likely that Russia is behind this", says German observer and political scientist Stefan Meister in an interview with ARD. According to him, it is obvious that Russia is waging a hybrid war with NATO and the European Union (EU), as well as expanding its attacks to test us. "It is also a question of how the United States will react, whether they will support the Europeans to continue testing us", Meister points out. According to him, especially in the recent incidents with drones in various places in Europe, it is more a question of testing our reactions, and not so much about espionage.
When asked why Denmark is now also among the targets (after similar cases in Poland, Romania, Estonia and Norway), the German expert says: "Denmark currently holds the presidency of the EU Council, which is very important in the European context for pushing through certain decisions. In addition, Denmark is very strongly committed to supporting Ukraine, including its accession. It has provided Ukraine with its defense systems, largely finances the production of weapons or helps Ukraine produce weapons."
Germany is also involved in this hybrid war, Meister also says. Ultimately, it is also about how Germany will react, says the political scientist. In this regard, he recalls that German fighter jets also participate in every Russian provocation in the Baltic Sea.
"I think we will see many more such tests. We need to prepare ourselves in a completely different way for these new dangers associated with drones, as we still do not have adequate protection against them," the German observer also told ARD.
"There are clear rules for shooting down drones"
Regarding the expressed readiness by US President Donald Trump to support the shooting down of drones violating NATO airspace, Stefan Meister also answers the question of how realistic this is: "Within NATO, there are very clear rules on when and how to shoot down something - fighter jets, but also drones. Since they are not piloted, drones are easier to shoot down - in the sense that it does not cause casualties. But there is a risk of people on the ground getting hurt, of buildings being destroyed. That is why it is not so easy to just shoot down drones," the German political scientist assures in his interview with ARD.