Suspicious Drones Spotted Over Thyssenkrupp Sub-Building Shipyard in Kiel
The mysterious and provocative drone overflights around Denmark last week were not isolated incidents, new reporting from Germany suggests. Similar drone formations were spotted in and around Kiel last Friday, including parts of the port city's maritime infrastructure, according to Der Spiegel.
The incident in Kiel occurred on September 26, four days after a small flock of airborne drones forced the closure of Copenhagen's airport. According to Der Spiegel's sources, the drones surveilled the waterfront, the bay, and the facilities in the harbor, including the Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems submarine plant. Security sources reported a larger "mother drone" accompanied by smaller drones, working in a coordinated fashion over Kiel's maritime critical infrastructure. Elsewhere in the state, drones were spotted as far inland as the Heide refinery plant in Hemmingstedt, 40 miles southwest of Kiel along the canal.
"It is clear that the drone overflights in various EU countries, Germany, and here in Schleswig-Holstein in recent weeks and months are primarily intended to create uncertainty and destabilize," regional Minister-President Daniel Gunther told Der Spiegel on Wednesday. "We also need effective and functioning drone defense in Germany as soon as possible to protect our critical infrastructure and the population."
Danish authorities suspect that the earlier Copenhagen raid may have been launched from the main deck of one or more Russia-linked merchant ships, including the shadow fleet tanker Pushpa, which was boarded and searched by French authorities on Wednesday. Likewise, the Kiel drone operation on Friday may also have been launched from a vessel in the Baltic, according to Der Spiegel.
On Wednesday, EU leaders gathered in Copenhagen to discuss options for aiding Ukraine and responding to Russian "hybrid warfare" activity, both along the eastern flank and deep in Europe's interior. Most leaders have been circumspect about the source of the drone incidents, but after the meeting, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen addressed the matter of attribution directly.
"We meet at a time when Russia have intensified their attacks in Ukraine, where we have seen Russian airspace violations and unwanted drone activity in several European countries," she told reporters. "They are threatening us and they are testing us and they will not stop."
Top image: A sub on the shiplift at TKMS in Kiel (file image courtesy Marco Kuntzsch / CC BY SA 3.0)
