| Euractiv euractiv.com Sep 23, 2025 - 09:44 Chris Powers
AFP
/
Euractiv

Danish police said on Tuesday that they did not know who was responsible for flying drones over Copenhagen airport the previous evening, but that they appeared to have been knowledgeable.

Overnight on Monday, the appearance of drones caused the main airports of both Denmark and Norway to close for several hours, causing flight diversions and other travel disruption. While flights are now resuming, heavy travel delays were expected to last throughout Tuesday.

“The number, size, flight patterns, time over the airport. All this together … indicates that it is a capable actor. Which capable actor, I do not know,” Danish police inspector Jens Jespersen told reporters at a press conference Tuesday morning.

The airport was closed for several hours before reopening early Tuesday, causing numerous delays and travel disruptions to 20,000 passengers, airport officials said.

Among those affected was European Commissioner Roxana Mînzatu, whose plane was diverted from Copenhagen to the Swedish town of Ängelholm.

Police said several large drones were seen over the Danish capital’s Kastrup airport on Monday. A heavy police presence was dispatched to investigate the drone activity, and the devices could be seen coming and going for several hours before flying away on their own.

“The drones have disappeared and the airport is open again,” Deputy Police Inspector Jakob Hansen told reporters. “We didn’t take the drones down,” he added.

Who dunnit?
Hansen said police were cooperating with the Danish military and intelligence service to find out where the drones had come from. He said police were also working with colleagues in Oslo after drone sightings in the Norwegian capital also caused the airport to close for several hours.

“We had two different drone sightings,” said Oslo airport spokeswoman Monica Fasting.

Though no culprit has been definitively identified, there is already speculation.

“Obvious to view the drones over Kastrup as a hybrid attack” was the title of a live blog post by Jakob Hvide Beim, defence editor at leading Danish newspaper Politiken. He went on to explain that the authorities have been warning about the risk of Russian hybrid attacks against Denmark “for some time now”.

Why Denmark specifically? Copenhagen’s track record of significant Ukraine support, Hvide Beim says, noting as example Denmark having “taken the lead by offering Ukrainian arms factories the opportunity to open production” in Denmark.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X about a Russian incursion of Danish airspace on 22 September, albeit without providing proof or substantiating further.

Last night’s drone incursion over Denmark and Norway comes after a spate of Russian aerial incursions over NATO territory. Two weeks ago, Poland shot down several of the 20 Russian drones that entered its airspace which led Warsaw to activate NATO’s Article 4 – meaning it believes there is a credible threat to the country’s security.

Friday last week, Russian fighter jets entered Estonian airspace, lingering for 12 minutes and prompting Tallinn to likewise initiate conversations under the umbrella of Article 4, which will take place today.

(cp, vib)