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'Unfounded accusations everytime': Russia denies involvement in drone flights over airports in Denmark, Norway

'Unfounded accusations everytime': Russia denies involvement in drone flights over airports in Denmark, Norway

Russia Photograph: (AFP)

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Drone activity near Copenhagen and Oslo airports forced closures, with Denmark calling it a major attack on critical infrastructure. PM Frederiksen hinted at Russian involvement amid similar incidents across Europe. The Kremlin strongly denied the accusations, calling them baseless 

Authorities in Denmark and Norway on the intervening night of Tuesday (Sep 23) spotted drone activities near the main airports of Copenhagen and Oslo, prompting the closure of airports. Issuing a statement, Denmark termed the incident as the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and linked it to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe. However, Russia denied any involvement in the said incident.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, while addressing the daily briefing call, said, “We hear unfounded accusations from there every time. Perhaps a party that takes a serious, responsible position shouldn’t make such unfounded accusations time and again.” Peskov's statement came after Danish PM Mette Frederiksen said, “We are obviously not ruling out any options in relation to who is behind it. And it is clear that this fits in with the developments we have observed recently with other drone attacks, violations of airspace, and hacker attacks on European airports. I certainly cannot deny in any way that it is Russia.” Peskov had stressed a day earlier that Russian aircraft "do not violate" international law. Peskov said that the claims by Poland, Estonia and Romania are ‘baseless and unfounded’, adding: “Our military has declared that our aircraft observe international rules during all their flights and do not violate them in any way.”

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Poland, on September 9, confirmed that it shot down Russian drones that entered its airspace in a strike towards Ukraine. This was the first time since the start of the war in 2022 that a Russian incursion was reported in NATO nations bordering Russia-Ukraine. Romania was the second NATO country to report a Russian drone had breached its airspace on September 14. Then on Friday, Estonia requested an urgent consultation with other Nato members after three Russian warplanes entered its airspace “without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes.”

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On Sep 20, Britain said its fighter jets conducted a NATO air defence mission over Poland as part of an allied response to Russian drone incursions. Moscow has downplayed these incidents and has said that it has "no plans to target" facilities in Poland. These incidents have exposed the difference between European leaders' urgent calls for action against Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump's muted response to these calls.

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Navashree Nandini

Navashree Nandini works as a senior sub-editor and has over five years of experience. She writes about global conflicts ranging from India and its neighbourhood to West Asia to the...Read More