Allies to help boost security at Denmark's European summits amid drone threat

By Louise Rasmussen and Soren Jeppesen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -France, Germany and Sweden said on Monday they would send military personnel and anti-drone systems to Denmark to boost security at this week's European summits after drone incursions that forced the temporary closure of several Danish airports.

Copenhagen is due to host EU leaders on Wednesday, followed by a summit on Thursday of the wider, 47-member European Political Community. It has already said it has increased security around the events after the drone sightings.

Drones disrupted air traffic at six Danish airports last week, including at Copenhagen, the Nordic region's busiest, in what Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called a hybrid attack on her nation.

Joining European allies in the offer of support, British defence minister John Healey said the UK was sending counter-drone technology to Denmark.

"No one should be in any doubt that we are facing a level of grey-zone activity and aggression which is testing us and testing other countries," Healey told Politico in an interview.

WORRY OVER RUSSIA THREAT TO EUROPE

Denmark has stopped short of saying definitively who it believes is responsible for the drone attacks, but Frederiksen has suggested it could be Moscow, calling Russia the primary "country that poses a threat to European security". The Kremlin denies involvement.

"(President Vladimir) Putin wants to divide us. I will do everything I can to ensure that he never succeeds," she wrote in a post on Instagram on Monday.

Last week, Frederiksen linked the drone sorties in Denmark to a series of other suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruption across Europe. These have included drone sorties into Polish and Romanian airspace, as well as Estonia reporting on September 19 that Russian fighter jets had entered its airspace for 12 minutes.

ANTI-DRONE SYSTEMS, SOLDIERS AND A HELICOPTER

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country was sending "Counter-UAS" - Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System - as well as "a handful" of radar systems to Denmark.

Swedish police separately said they would send a significant force to Copenhagen at Denmark's request, and that Norwegian law enforcement officers would also take part.

France announced that it would be sending a Fennec military helicopter, as well as a 35-strong team who would handle aspects of anti-drone work.

Germany will deploy around 40 soldiers to Copenhagen to help with detecting, identifying and defending against drones, a Berlin government spokesperson told reporters in a briefing on the EU summit on Monday.

The operation will last until October 7 and the soldiers will carry the appropriate equipment with them, the spokesperson said.

On Sunday, Denmark ordered a ban on civilian drone flights, after drones were observed at several military facilities overnight.

The NATO military alliance on Saturday said it was upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea in response to the situation in Denmark, and a German air defence frigate arrived in Copenhagen on Sunday to assist with airspace surveillance.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen and Soren Jeppesen; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin and Muvija M in London; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Gareth Jones, Peter Graff and Edmund Klamann)