Katherine Butler
When Munich airport had to close on 2 October after a suspected drone incursion, dozens of flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers left stranded on the eve of a German national holiday and the famous Oktoberfest.
A week earlier, Copenhagen and Aalborg airports were closed following sightings of “unmanned aerial systems” in Danish airspace. In the month since a swarm of Russian drones violated Polish airspace – three were shot down – a rash of similar incidents has been reported across Germany, the Baltic and Nordic countries, often over power plants and military bases.
Russia’s alleged “hybrid war” has suddenly begun to feel a bit close for comfort for many Europeans: potentially reaching into cities a long way from the frontline, comfortably untroubled – until now – by the fallout from the war raging in Ukraine.
Public anxiety is mounting, particularly at Nato’s borders, reported Daniel Boffey and Miranda Bryant earlier this week – the strange red lights that people on the west coast of Norway keep seeing are a new source of collective stress. Their feature found echoes in history of what is now happening: Soviet “ghost planes” caused panic in the 1930s and UFO sightings were common in subsequent decades.
Suspicion that the Kremlin is orchestrating a shadow war of sabotage and subterfuge on Europe is not new, although Moscow denies it. Fiona Hill, the former White House Russia adviser, warned in June that Russia was “already at war with Europe”. But the latest drone episodes suggest a gear change; that Russia is accelerating the hybrid campaign in daring new ways. Moscow may be using oil tankers from its illicit “shadow fleet”, for example, as a launchpad for drones, including those that forced Denmark to close its airports.
Challenges in defending the grey zone
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