Mystery Drones Disrupt European Airports As EU Blames Russia for Incursions

Unidentified aerial incursions shut down northern European airports, with European Union (EU) officials pointing the blame at Russia ahead of their summit on Wednesday, hosted in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

A wave of suspicious drone activity in Denmark forced the closure of multiple airports and put the country's military on high alert. Copenhagen, Aalborg, Billund, and several other airports halted operations following sightings of unmanned aircraft. This disrupted travel and intensified fears of advanced espionage.

The incursions come at a time of heightened tensions between the West and Russia. Moscow has sparked concerns about a broader hybrid war after Russia made multiple unprecedented airspace violations into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) eastern front of Estonia, Romania, and Poland last month.

As witnessed over Danish skies, dozens can be deployed in swarms, closing airports and sowing fear among the general public. On the battlefields of Ukraine, automated attack drones have fundamentally changed the nature of warfare.

"The war of the future is already here," Niall Ferguson, a Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, wrote for the Free Press on September 24. "The question is how well Europeans understand this. The people of Poland, Romania, Estonia, and (perhaps) Denmark all now know that Russian drones are capable of entering their airspace. But have they truly grasped what that implies?"

Mystery Drones: A EU ‘Wake-Up' Call

Suspicious drones were also sighted over Germany and Norway. In Europe’s biggest economy, drones temporarily closed the Munich Airport. Lufthansa cancelled or rerouted 19 flights because of the airport suspension, an airline spokesperson said.

The closure should be a "wake-up call" about the threat posed by drones, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said today. "The race between the threat from drones and the defense against drones is becoming more and more difficult."

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described the incidents in Denmark as "the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure in recent memory." Danish authorities have suspended civilian drone flights nationwide to protect airports, energy sites, and military bases.

The episodes have increased momentum behind new European initiatives, including the idea of a continent-wide "drone wall" to monitor and intercept unmanned aircraft. NATO has moved additional surveillance assets into the Baltic and Nordic regions, reflecting growing pressure on allied defenses.

Denmark Says Moscow Likely Source of Threat

Danish investigators have been unable to identify those responsible for the flights, but the defense ministry called it a "hybrid attack" that was part of a "systematic operation." Frederiksen pointed directly to Moscow as the most likely source of the threat.

"We can at least state that there is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe's security — and that is Russia," he said. The Russian embassy in Copenhagen dismissed such allegations as "absurd speculations."

At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that their experts had already begun training operations in Denmark to share battlefield knowledge. Ukraine has developed a homegrown, technologically sophisticated drone industry since Russia's invasion in 2022.

"Our group of specialists has begun deploying a mission in Denmark to share Ukraine's experience in countering drones," he wrote on X.

Markets View Incursion With Caution

Markets viewed the outcome with caution. The OMX Copenhagen 25 finished September about 1.8% lower, extending its year-to-date decline to about 5.40%.

Companies such as Parrot SA (PAOT.PA), Thales Group (HO.PA), BAE Systems plc (BA.L), and Rheinmetall AG (RHM.DE) are leading European efforts to develop a domestic drone industry.

Rheinmetall has focused on armed drones and counter-UAS systems. Thales has developed UAVs, including Watchkeeper and SpyRanger, for surveillance purposes.

All of these companies have performed exceptionally well on the market year-to-date, but French Parrot SA and Germany's Rheinmetall have more than doubled, rising 235.50% and 230.30%, respectively.

Copenhagen Summit Reaches Careful Conclusions

The EU summit convened in Copenhagen amid these heightened concerns, with debates focused on finance, security, and enlargement. What emerged was less a breakthrough than a set of careful conclusions without unanimous agreement among member states.

• Drone wall idea captured headlines but remains a vague concept. Former Danish brigadier general Ole Kvaerno called it "a political concept at the moment," but added that the recent incursions in Denmark showed why plans needed to become operational.
• Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the drone wall should provide "swift detection, interception and, if necessary, neutralization."
• NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised the drone-wall initiative as "timely and necessary," noting Europe cannot afford to rely on costly missiles against cheap drones.
• France and Germany expressed skepticism about allowing the Commission to manage the drone wall project, and southern states requested that border security in the Mediterranean be taken into consideration as well.
• Leaders agreed on the urgency of building up European defenses, but resisted shifting control too far toward Brussels.
• European Council President António Costa stressed that defense ministers should meet regularly between summits.
• Proposals to ease Ukraine's EU entry requirements met firm resistance. Hungary's Viktor Orbán openly rejected the idea, while other member states, such as France and the Netherlands, refused to support it.
• Leaders confirmed ongoing financial and military assistance to Kyiv, referencing the €177.5 billion already pledged.
• Proposals to utilize Russian frozen assets to fund a €140 billion loan for Ukraine were discussed but not approved, primarily due to concerns about the associated legal risks.

Suspicious Drones Pose Deeper Mystery

Frederiksen warned that Europe was facing "the most dangerous situation since the end of the Second World War," adding: "They are threatening us, they are testing us, and they will not stop."

Still, beyond the immediate diplomacy, commentators have linked the Danish disruptions to other unexplained drone activities worldwide. The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat traced a line from drone swarms over New Jersey to Copenhagen today, framing drones as both technological tools and objects of almost otherworldly uncertainty.

Douthat noted that drones often "feel like U.F.O.s, even though they presumably have earthbound origins."

Quoting Arthur C. Clarke's famous line — "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" — he noted how uncrewed aircraft occupy an unsettling space. Their purpose, origins, and capabilities are not always clear, producing an atmosphere of menace even when no overt attack occurs.

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