Swedish military says Russian drone made unauthorised flight off Sweden

A Russian drone carried out an unauthorised flight off southern Sweden earlier this week while a French aircraft carrier was docked in the port of Malmo, the Swedish military said.

The armed forces said in a statement on Friday that a Swedish naval vessel detected a drone taking off from a Russian signals intelligence ship in the Oresund strait, which separates Sweden from Denmark.

It said that systems on board the Swedish ship took countermeasures to jam the drone.

The French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is in the southern Swedish city of Malmo this week as part of regular Nato exercise activities.

Malmo is located on the Oresund, opposite Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.

French military spokesman Guillaume Vernet told The Associated Press earlier that the drone was detected on Wednesday and handled by Swedish forces integrated into a security system around the carrier.

He said on Friday that the drone was more than 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Charles de Gaulle.

“This system showed it is robust, and this event had no impact on the activity of the aircraft carrier battle group,” Mr Vernet said.

Sweden’s defence minister had said on Thursday evening that the drone appeared to be Russian.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said during a visit to the French ship earlier Friday that “it is serious and maybe not surprising”, as Russia dislikes Western exercises and the West dislikes Moscow’s actions.

French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who also visited the Charles de Gaulle, emphasised that the security of the aircraft carrier was not threatened.

“If indeed… there is a potential Russian origin for this incident, it would be a ridiculous provocation,” he said.

French aircraft carrier The Charles de Gaulle PA Media

He said that he had no information of his own on the source of the drone.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not know about the incident.

Asked by reporters about Swedish officials linking the drone to the Russian ship, Mr Peskov said that “it’s quite absurd” to claim that the drone was Russian just because a Russian ship was nearby.

Western officials say Russia is masterminding a campaign of sabotage and disruption across Europe.

An Associated Press database has documented well over 100 incidents.

Not all of them are public and it can sometimes take officials months to establish a link to Moscow.

While officials say the campaign — waged since Russia launched an all-out war against Ukraine in 2022 — aims to deprive Kyiv of support, they believe Moscow is also trying to identify Europe’s weak spots and divert law enforcement resources.