COPENHAGEN: The European Union accused Russia on Tuesday of the ‘reckless’ firing of flares at a Danish helicopter which, with the shooting down of a drone over Lithuania, heightened the continent’s anxiety over the UkraineRussia war.
Amid a mounting security showdown, the Kremlin in turn focused its diplomatic fire on France’s initiative to bring European countries under its nuclear umbrella, insisting it was ‘creating risks’.
Denmark and Russia blamed each other for the flares fired at a Danish military helicopter monitoring a Russian frigate on Monday. The Danish armed forces said that an air force Fennec helicopter was ‘fired at with flares during a routine photographic operation of a Russian frigate, which was located in international waters off Gedser’, Denmark’s southernmost town.
The frigate fired ‘two flares towards the helicopter. One of the flares passed at close range to the helicopter,’ said a military statement. Lithuania announced that Nato fighter jets had shot down a drone overitsterritory.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen condemned ‘reckless and dangerous Russian behaviour’. ‘These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe, testing our resolve,’ she said.-AFP