A Russian Frigate Fired Two Flares at a Danish Helicopter Off Gedser With No Warning and No Radio Call. One Passed 'a Matter of Meters' From the Aircraft.

A Russian guided-missile frigate fired two flares toward a Danish Air Force helicopter in international waters off Gedser, Denmark's southernmost town, on Monday, and one of them passed within "a matter of meters" of the aircraft, Danish officials said Tuesday. The Fennec helicopter was on what the Danish defense ministry described as a routine mission to photograph the ship, the Northern Fleet frigate Admiral Kasatonov, as it transited the Baltic Sea. "No warning or radio contact was given before the firing of the flares," Defence Minister Jeppe Bruus said, adding that Danish crews have flown the same kind of photography sortie many times before.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the action "reckless" and said it fit a pattern of an increasingly aggressive Russia testing NATO's northern flank. "Russian actions are meant to intimidate and divide. They will not succeed. We will not waver," she said. "Russia wants to sow fear and discord. Our answer is to stand closer together." Denmark did not invoke NATO's consultation or collective defense provisions, judging the incident serious but below that threshold. Bruus called representatives of the parliamentary parties to the defense ministry for a briefing.

Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen summoned Russia's ambassador, Vladimir Barbin, over what he called behavior that was "completely unacceptable and could have put human lives at risk." "Russia is gradually shifting the boundary for what they consider acceptable behaviour," Rasmussen said. Barbin said Moscow would investigate thoroughly, but he turned the accusation around, saying it was not the first time Danish military helicopters had carried out dangerous maneuvers near Russian warships in international waters, and Russia's embassy filed a formal complaint.

Denmark's Defence Intelligence Service has documented a series of similar encounters in the Danish straits, the chokepoint through which Russian ships must pass to reach the Baltic. Russian warships have repeatedly steered onto collision courses with Danish vessels, locked tracking radars onto Danish helicopters and ships, and pointed weapons at them, the service has reported. In autumn 2025, unidentified drones appeared over Danish airports and over Skrydstrup air base, where Ukrainian F-16 pilots train, and Danish intelligence has warned that Russia is recruiting Danes over social media to plan sabotage while running cyberattacks against the country.

The flare incident was one of several overnight. Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, an Italian fighter jet flying under NATO command shot down a drone over Lithuania near the village of Pratkunai, south of Kaunas. Lithuanian officials said the drone most likely entered from Belarus but did not identify its origin. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen linked the two events, condemning "reckless and dangerous Russian behaviour" that she said was part of "a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe."

The Baltic region has been on heightened alert since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with undersea cable and pipeline outages, airspace violations and drone sightings keeping the region's militaries busy. Monday's incident is the first publicly confirmed case of a Russian warship firing anything in the direction of a Danish aircraft, and it came days after Russia's ambassador in Copenhagen was already fielding complaints about the frigate's conduct in the straits.