Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that a "hybrid war" has begun in Europe after waves of drones closed Danish airspace this week, Politico quoted her as saying.
Danish authorities temporarily closed two major airports overnight Wednesday after drones were spotted in the sky. Copenhagen described the drone sightings as an attack, calling it a "hybrid attack" by a "professional actor", with several other airports in the country reporting similar incidents. Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo were also closed on Monday due to drone incursions, leading to flight cancellations and thousands of people being stranded.
The airspace violations showed that "we are at the beginning of a hybrid war against Europe," Frederiksen said in an address to the nation posted on social media. "I think we will see more of this... We see the pattern and it does not look good", she added.
Frederiksen said Danish authorities had not yet established "who is behind the hybrid attacks on our airports and other critical infrastructure", but hinted that the Kremlin was responsible.
"We can at least state that there is primarily one country that poses a threat to the security of Europe - and that is Russia," she said.
In recent weeks, Europe has been rocked by a series of incursions into its airspace involving Russian aircraft and drones. Estonia and Poland have called NATO members for emergency talks after accusing Russia of violating their airspace in separate incidents.
Moscow denied responsibility for the Estonian incursion and said the incident in Poland, in which a swarm of drones crossed into Polish airspace, was an accident.
Just hours after Frederiksen's address, Aalborg Airport in the north of the country was briefly closed for a second consecutive night due to a suspected drone incursion.
Frederiksen said she could not promise that "no drones will cross the border," but added that Copenhagen had "raised the alert level" and is strengthening its defenses against drones.
"This means that defense and police will be more active with counter-drone capabilities around critical infrastructure in the future," she said, adding that Ukraine was providing expertise in countering drones.
Earlier this month, the Danish Defense Ministry announced it would purchase the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defense system for 58 billion Danish kroner (7.7 billion euros), the largest arms purchase ever.
Frederiksen concluded her address by calling on Europe to increase defense spending.
"That is why we are expanding the European defense industry and that is why we are building the defense industry in Denmark," she said. "The events of recent days underscore how important this is."