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

Original article by Jon Henley Europe correspondent

A Russian warship fired two emergency flares at a Danish helicopter in the Baltic Sea and an Italian Nato fighter jet shot down a drone carrying an explosive device over Lithuania in what the EU described as “reckless and dangerous” Russian behaviour.

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

German authorities, meanwhile, were searching for more debris on Tuesday from a drone believed to have crashed on Monday near Lake Steinhude in the Hanover region, a little more than half a mile from the German Bundeswehr’s airbase in Wunstorf.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the incidents in Denmark and Lithuania were not isolated but “part of a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe testing our readiness and our resolve”. She added: “Russia will find our resolve only growing stronger.”

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, also 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 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” on Monday, the military’s statement said. “One of the flares passed at close range to the helicopter.”

No warning or radio contact was given before the flares were fired and they came within “a matter ​of metres” of the helicopter, the Danish defence minister, Jeppe ‌Bruus, said. He said the ‌helicopter had been following standard procedures to photograph the vessel, an operation carried out “many times” in the past.

The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said on Tuesday 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.

Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said it was “not the first time” Danish helicopters had “carried out dangerous manoeuvres near Russian warships”, accusing this one of “provocative actions” against the Russian frigate.

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The Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda, said early on Tuesday 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.”

The drone fell near the village of Pratkūnai, about 60 miles (100km) west of the capital, Vilnius, and near the Kaunas reservoir, and had most likely entered the country’s airspace form Belarus, Lithuania’s national crisis management centre said.

The centre’s head, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, told LRT public radio the drone had remained in Lithuanian airspace for about 30 minutes and had flown along the outskirts of populated areas before being intercepted.

Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said it “most probably” came from Russia and his Lithuanian counterpart, Robertas Kaunas, said an explosive device had been “discovered and subsequently neutralised” during a search of the site, near a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant.

Lithuania’s foreign minister, Kęstutis Budrys, said Nato allies had been informed about the incident and discussions were under way “both in the EU and Nato, because it is obvious that we all still have a lot of homework to do”.

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 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 Russian drone from the Baltic Sea near the ​beach in Rusinowo, close ‌to the coastal town of Jarosławiec.

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 the former British prime minister Boris Johnson and other foreign diplomats had used the same line.

In the Netherlands, train services were severely disrupted by deliberate ⁠acts of sabotage in more than 30 places around the country, the national rail infrastructure operator said, adding that it was not yet known who was responsible.

The Dutch rail infrastructure operator, ProRail, said lengths of steel pipe had been “deliberately” attached to railway tracks in more than 30 locations, mainly in ⁠rural areas in the middle and the east of the country.

“We are classifying this as ​sabotage of railway infrastructure,” ‌a ProRail spokesperson, Joke ‌van der Cruysen, said.

All trains in the vicinity of the track blockages were halted, while there were also serious disruptions elsewhere, including to international services ‌to Germany.

The ​Dutch intelligence agency, AIVD, said it was investigating the incidents, which were uncovered hours before King Willem-Alexander opened a ‌new session of parliament on Tuesday with a speech setting out the government’s 2027 budget plans.

Angry farmers set hay bales and tyres alight alongside several main roads later on Tuesday, forcing authorities to ​close them and seriously affecting traffic. The militant Farmers Defence Force said it was not responsible for the railway sabotage, but could not rule out farmers taking action individually.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

• This article was amended on 15 September 2026. Kęstutis Budrys is Lithuania’s foreign minister, not defence minister as stated in an earlier version.