Russian warship fires flares at Danish helicopter as Nato jets shoot down drone over Lithuania

Original article by Jon Henley and agencies

A Russian warship has fired two emergency flares at a Danish helicopter in the Baltic Sea, and Nato fighter jets have shot down a drone over Lithuania, in the latest security incidents on the alliance’s eastern flank linked to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Poland also scrambled fighter jets “due to the activity of Russian jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles conducting strikes on Ukrainian territory”, a day after retrieving a suspected Russian drone adrift in its waters.

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, on Tuesday condemned “reckless action from Russia towards Denmark’s military”, adding: “Russian actions are meant to intimidate and divide. They will not succeed. We will not waver.”

Denmark’s armed forces said in a statement late on Monday that one of its air force’s Fennec helicopters “was fired at with flares during a routine photographic operation of a Russian frigate” which was in international waters off southern Denmark.

The frigate had fired “two flares towards the helicopter. One of the flares passed at close range to the helicopter,” the military’s statement added.

The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said on Tuesday that he had summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident. “Russia is gradually shifting the boundary for what they consider acceptable behaviour,” he said.

“This is completely unacceptable and could have put human lives at risk. That is something we cannot accept,” he said. The Danish straits are the main sea route in and out ​of the Baltic Sea for commercial ​and military shipping.

They are also ​a major artery for global oil shipments, including from Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of tankers. Danish military intelligence has said Russian warships have sailed on collision courses with Danish vessels, targeted Danish helicopters and ships with tracking radars, and pointed weapons at them in the straits.

In Lithuania, President Gitanas Nausėda said early on Tuesday that a drone “that just entered Lithuanian airspace was destroyed by Nato fighter jets”, adding: “With Russia intensifying its aggression against Ukraine, such readiness is vital for our region.”

Citing preliminary data from Lithuania’s national crisis management centre, LRT public radio said the drone had come from neighbouring Belarus and was heading west, before being shot down by Italian fighter jets taking part in a Nato mission. It fell in a rural area near Lake Kaunas, in the centre of the country.

After a drone alert was issued in the capital Vilnius and surrounding region, the country’s foreign minister, Kęstutis Budrys, thanked allies and said the operation was the “best example of allied unity and resolve in action – sending a clear message that Nato stands vigilant, committed and ready”.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – all of which are Nato members and share a border with Russia – have regularly reported drone incursions since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A Nato fighter shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia in May.

European officials have said Russia has been diverting Ukrainian drones meant to strike industrial facilities and oil terminals in the St Petersburg region on the Gulf of Finland.

Poland, meanwhile, said early on Tuesday it had launched “aviation operations” in its airspace because Russian jet-powered drones were “conducting strikes on Ukrainian territory”. The operations were “preventive” and concluded without any violation of Polish airspace being observed, it later said.

They came after the country’s defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said on Monday that the military had located ⁠and recovered a drone from the Baltic Sea near the ​beach in Rusinowo, close ‌to the coastal town of Jarosławiec.

“Preliminary inspection indicates that it is a Russian military ‌drone,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said. An armed forces spokesperson said the drone appeared to be a Gerbera, a cheap long-range aerial drone made of materials such as plywood and foam.

Gerbera drones are often used as decoys, but can also carry explosives. This one was recovered by a hydrographic vessel, the military said.

Poland’s prime minister, ​Donald Tusk, has ​repeatedly said Nato countries ​should expect an increase in provocations from Moscow. A ​Russian drone hit ‌a passenger ​train on ​Ukraine’s border with Poland on Sunday, shortly after former the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, and other foreign diplomats had used the same line.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report