Hybrid warfare

Drones over Copenhagen and Oslo, flight chaos. EU spokesman: scheme leads to Russia. Moscow denies

Ongoing investigation: drones disappear and links between incidents are uncertain

23 September 2025

Pattuglia della polizia danese all'aeroporto di Copenaghen, Danimarca, lunedì 22 settembre 2025. (Steven Knap/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

4' min read

Key points

The case in Copenhagen
Drones over Copenhagen, police: not shot down, disappeared on their own
Drones over Norway

4' min read

"I certainly cannot rule out in any way" the involvement of Russia behind the drone flyover over Copenhagen airport yesterday evening. This was stated by Danish PM Mette Frederiksen to broadcaster DR. "We have seen drones over Poland, activity in Romania, violations of Estonian airspace, hacker attacks against European airports. Now there have been drones in Denmark and, apparently, also in Norway,' the premier stressed, adding that the intent 'of the attack' may have been to 'disrupt and create unrest, concern, see how far we can go and test the limits'. This is the 'most serious attack against a critical infrastructure' in Denmark, the prime minister said.

The Kremlin rejected Denmark's statements that Russia's involvement could not be ruled out, calling them 'unfounded'. However, EU Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said at the press briefing: 'We have seen a clear pattern and it points to Russia'. Hipper clarified, however, that investigations are ongoing, the outcome of which will have to be awaited. "Russia is testing our borders," she stressed, however, recalling recent incidents.

Copenhagen and Oslo airports were reopened after drone sightings overnight. The incidents nevertheless created chaos in the skies over the two capitals: the Danish airport, closed for a few hours and then reopened, was flown over by 3-4 large drones. A few hours later a drone was also spotted over the Norwegian airport, which was also closed. About fifty flights were cancelled, as many were diverted to other airports. The drones were not shot down, they just disappeared on their own, says the Danish police, who announce that they will cooperate with the Norwegian authorities to find out if there is a connection between the two events.

The Danish police have not yet identified those responsible for the drone overflights, but they are 'competent' people. "The number, the size, the flight paths, the time spent over the airport. All this together indicates that it is a capable actor. Which capable actor, I don't know,' police inspector Jens Jespersen told reporters.

The case in Copenhagen

About fifty flights were cancelled, as many were diverted to other airports. This is the balance of an evening of chaos in the skies over the Danish capital, when '3-4 large drones' began flying over the airport, according to the police, entering and leaving the airport. For several hours. Maximum deployment of police forces to try to bring the situation back to normal. Kastrup airport, Denmark's largest, was closed around 8.30 p.m., local media reported, following the detection of several suspicious drones flying over the airport. Some flights that were supposed to land in the capital were diverted to other airports in the country, while long queues of stranded passengers formed inside. As the hours passed, about seventy flights were diverted, including to Sweden, Malmö, and Gothenburg. There were 50 cancelled take-offs.

A police spokesperson, Anette Ostenfeldt, confirmed it was 'three or four large, non-hobby drones' moving in and out of the airport area. According to other sources, some helicopters took to the air. Copenhagen Airport was then reopened around 1am.

Drones over Copenhagen, police: not shot down, disappeared on their own

The drones over Copenhagen Airport were not shot down by the authorities, but disappeared from the area on their own and we do not know where they went. Deputy police inspector Jakob Hansen said this at a press conference. 'We are trying to find out,' he adds, 'what kind of drones were near the airport and where they came from. Various measures will be implemented,' he says again, but without specifying what these measures are. 'At around 8:30 p.m.,' Hansen reconstructs, 'the Copenhagen police received a notification from Naviair (the body that controls and manages air traffic) that the airspace was closed due to the observation of drones. The police, who are still present at the airport, then started a thorough investigation, in cooperation with PET and the Danish armed forces'.

Drones over Norway

Also from Norway came the report, relayed by the local media, of drones allegedly flying over a military area near the Akershus Fortress. According to the daily newspaper Aftonbladet, the drones were spotted around 9 p.m., discovered by the Norwegian Defence Force: according to first unofficial information, there were two arrests, apparently foreign citizens. Although, the media also notes, there is still no indication that the incident is connected to the drones that caused the closure of Copenhagen airport. Another drone was spotted near Oslo airport in the evening, and shortly before midnight Flightradar24 noted that, according to audio from the control tower, the planes went on standby for 'drone observation' and started to move away from the airport.

Later in the day, a drone also reportedly flew over the capital's airport, which was closed and then reopened in the night. The airspace had been closed about three hours ago due to the presence of some drones, Monica Fasting, Oslo Airport's communications manager, wrote in an e-mail to the Norwegian news agency NTB. "The airspace has been reopened. We ask passengers to report normally. The airport,' he writes, 'had previously been closed after at least two drones were spotted near the runway. The decision was made for security reasons'. According to NTB, the closure of the airport affected 12 flights.

In the past few days there had been other incidents, the most important of which in Poland, where a dozen aircraft had been intercepted over Polish airspace. A few days later, Russian fighter jets flew over, instead, the airspace of Estonia.

L'Estonia denuncia all'Onu l'invasione russa del suo spazio aereo

Zelensky: Violation in Danish airspace is Russian

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X reports that he broached the subject of 'Russia's violations of the airspace of NATO member states, also on 22 September in Copenhagen' with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, . 'We exchanged,' he writes, 'views on the reasons. If there is no decisive response from allies - both states and institutions - to provocations, Russia will continue to perpetrate such violations'. At the press conference that ended a few hours ago in Copenhagen, the police neither confirmed nor denied that the drones were Russian, merely reporting that they were at work.