UNIDENTIFIED DRONES HAVE been observed over Denmark’s biggest military base, the latest in a slew of sightings that officials have called a “hybrid attack”.

The mystery drone observations have prompted the closure of several airports across the Scandinavian country since Monday, when the first drones appeared.

“I can confirm that we had an incident around 8.15 pm (7.15pm Irish time) that lasted for some hours. One to two drones were observed outside and over the airbase,” duty officer Simon Skelsjaer said, referring to the Karup military base.

He said police could not comment on where the drones came from, adding: “We didn’t take them down.”

Police were cooperating with the military in their investigation, he said.

The Karup base shares its runways with the Midtjylland civilian airport, which was briefly closed though no flights were affected as no commercial flights were scheduled at that hour, Skelsjaer said.

Drones were spotted at Denmark’s airports in Aalborg, Esbjerg, Sonderborg and at the Skrydstrup air base on Wednesday night before leaving on their own.

Aalborg airport, located in northern Denmark and one of the country’s biggest after Copenhagen, was shut down before reopening several hours later. A similar incident days earlier prompted Copenhagen airport to shut, 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday that “over recent days, Denmark has been the victim of hybrid attacks,” referring to unconventional warfare.

She referred to similar drone incidents in Poland and Romania and the violation by Russian fighter jets of Estonia’s airspace.

The governments of Poland, Estonia and Romania have pointed the finger at Moscow, which has brushed off the allegations.

Danish intelligence said the Scandinavian country was facing a “high threat of sabotage”.

Russia blasts EU ‘drone wall’ plans

Today, Russia has blasted the EU’s plans to beef up its defences against drones, saying the bloc’s response to unidentified unmanned aircraft crossing its borders would only increase tensions.

Defence ministers from around 10 EU countries on Friday agreed to make the so-called “drone wall” a priority for the bloc, after some member states were rattled by a string of airspace violations by Russia in recent weeks.

The meeting was convened by commissioner Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister, who estimated that the cost of creating the project would be in the range of “several billion euros, not hundreds of billions”.

“More or less we understand what we need to develop. How much it will cost – we shall see,” he said.

He said the ministers had backed a broad plan to bolster the EU’s eastern defences, the “priority” being to build a drone wall “with advanced detection, tracking, and interception capabilities.

“The repeated violations of our airspace are unacceptable,” he told reporters.

“The message is clear: Russia is testing the EU and NATO. And our response must be firm, united, and immediate.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the measures would lead to “an increase in military and political tensions on our continent,” according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

The ministry added that the plans amounted to “personal ambitions and political games of the EU’s ruling elites.”

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen made a first call for the “drone wall” in a keynote speech earlier this month, hours after NATO shot down Russian drones in Poland.

The EU also said it needs to learn from Ukraine, which encounters Russian drone swarms daily, and thus have developed cheaper solutions to intercept them.

Moscow denied breaching NATO’s airspace and called the EU’s reaction a “hysteria”, saying Russian pilots abide by international air navigation rules, adding there was no evidence the drones that have crossed the European airspace were Russian.

Additional reporting from © AFP 2025 

SPORTS MINISTER PATRICK O’Donovan has said he was “disappointed that it took my intervention” for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to attend a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Wednesday.

The Association had withdrawn from a planned appearance before the committee last week, where they were invited to discuss their safeguarding procedures following revelations made in a joint investigation by RTÉ and the Sunday Independent, citing legal advice as a Garda investigation is ongoing.

However, officials later informed the committee that a five-person delegation would attend. 

Speaking to reporters in New York, O’Donovan said it took his intervention to prompt the football association’s u-turn. 

“That shouldn’t happen,” he said. “I hope that other sporting organisations, or any other organisation that I have responsibility for… would look on and say, if you’re in receipt of large sums of money, I expect you to be accountable to the taxpayer.

“Non-engagement is not an option, and I’ve been very firm on that.”

In the bruising appearance before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport on Wednesday, chairperson Alan Kelly described the FAI’s display as “farcical”, “unprecedented”, and “one of the strangest committee meetings I was ever at”.

Kelly also said the FAI’s behaviour prior to attending the meeting was “disrespectful to the people of Ireland” after they initially deferred their invitation.

O’Donovan said he did not see all of the committee appearance, but that his officials attended. 

He added: “I don’t want to be getting involved in committees of the Oireachtas again as Minister. It’s not the Minister’s role to be telling somebody that you have to go into a committee, and I hope that’s the last time I have to do that.”

He also said that reform of the organisation must be accelerated. 

Last year, the Government signed off a new Memorandum of Understanding with the FAI, agreeing to fund the association to the tune of €6m a year until the end of 2027.

As part of the deal, the FAI is required to continue to make reforms to its internal governance structures as well as reviewing and reforming its grassroots leagues at amateur and underage level.

O’Donovan said part of the memorandum of understanding involves “the trickling down effect of governance to the affiliates”. 

“There’s no doubt about it that there are problems,” he said.

“It is heavily resourced at the moment by the taxpayer. We have to get to a trajectory where that doesn’t continue, because we can’t, quite frankly, have the FAI as an appendage of the government. That can’t continue.”

He says the organisation “has to be salvageable” because there has to be a national association for the development of football in Ireland.

“There’s obviously a journey, and some people might not be as enthusiastic about the journey of reform as others, but we have to see that accelerated and be brought to a conclusion.”