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MILITARY

Denmark accuses Russian spy plane of violating airspace

The Russian ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, has been summoned for a talk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, after a Russian plane violated Danish airspace on Friday, according to Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod.

Published: 1 May 2022 15:26 CEST
F16 fighter jets demonstrate the interception of a Belgian air force transport plane as they fly over Denmark, January 14th, 2020
F16 fighter jets. Photo: Johanna Geron/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

On Friday, a Russian AN-30 propeller plane was flying east of Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, before it headed towards Swedish territory.

“It is completely unacceptable and extremely worrying in the current situation”, Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Danish F16 fighter jets countered the incursion and the plane then left Danish airspace. 

“We are in a special situation across the whole of Europe. That is why, of course, it is really serious when we see Russia violating our airspace. Therefore we have called in the Ambassador so that we can make that view clear to Russia,” Kofod reiterated to newswire Ritzau.

The plane was also briefly in Swedish airspace. It is unknown whether this was a deliberate violation or not.

Russian ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin has attended several talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since the war in Ukraine.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, Moscow has threatened retaliation against any countries that participate in the war, which Russia characterises as a “special military operation”, on the side of Ukraine.

Danish fighter aircraft currently patrol the skies over Baltic Sea island Bornholm daily in what has been described as a precaution against potential Russian encroachment on Danish airspace in the area.

Denmark is a member of NATO, unlike Sweden where a debate is taking place over whether it should abandon its non-aligned status and join the alliance.

Questioned by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, the Swedish defence minister said there was no proof that the breach was linked to current discussions on Stockholm eventually joining NATO.

Russia has already signalled that Stockholm and Helsinki, which is also contemplating membership, should consider the consequences of such a move on bilateral relations and Europe’s overall security architecture.

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Member comments

  1. It is incidents like this that forces neutral countries to consider joining NATO even my own country of Ireland is talking about joining the alliance and we see Sweden and Finland feel threatened by Russia.

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MILITARY

US troops to mount exercise on Danish Baltic island

US troops are planning to take part in a military exercise on the island of Bornholm next month, marking the third time in three years US soldiers have trained on Danish soil.

Published: 27 April 2024 10:38 CEST
US troops to mount exercise on Danish Baltic island

Denmark’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, revealed the planned exercise, which will take plance between May 1st and May 7th in a briefing to the Danish parliament’s defence committee.

As part of the exercise, US troops will ship an unnamed weapons system to Bornholm Airport, and then set it up in a military exercise area, but would not then fire any shots or missiles. 

“The exercise has a military training aspect, but also sends a signal about the solidarity of the alliance, about American commitment to security in Europe and in our own immediate area,” Lund Poulsen said in the briefing.

US troops took part in similar exercises in 2022 and 2023 on the strategically placed island, which lies 360km away from the Russian and controls access to the western Baltic. 

The US had requested permission to train on Bornholm, which the Danish government then accepted. There is no change in Danish armed forces’ assessment of the threat against Bornholm or Denmark, Lund Poulsen stressed. 

In December, Denmark entered into an agreement with the US, which permits US soldiers and equipment to be kept permanently on Danish soil, with hte US granted access to the Karup, Skrydstrup and Aalborg air bases.

When US troops held a similar exercise on the island in 2022, with a large missile system deployed to the island, the Russian ambassador to Denmark sent an official warning. 

“This can be seen as taking a step towards changing Bornholm from an island of peace to a potential military bridgehead,” Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, told the Danish broadcaster TV2.

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