COPENHAGEN — Danish police said on Tuesday that drones that shut the country’s main airport on Monday appeared to have been flown by “a capable operator” seeking to demonstrate certain abilities, adding that no suspects had been identified.

The airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, the two busiest in the Nordic region, were shut for hours after drones were observed in their airspace late on Monday, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded as flights were diverted.

“We have concluded that this was what we would call a capable operator,” Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the drones observed in Copenhagen.

“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will and the tools to show off in this way,” Mr. Jespersen said, adding that it was too early to say if the incidents in Denmark and Norway were linked.

Copenhagen Airport was closed for four hours when two or three large drones were seen flying in its immediate vicinity, officials said, while the Oslo Airport was closed for three hours following two sightings, according to local police.

Mr. Jespersen said the drones in Denmark came from several different directions, turning their lights on and off, before eventually disappearing after several hours.

Copenhagen diverted 31 flights to other airports, causing ripple effects that delayed or canceled around 100 flights and affected some 20,000 passengers, a spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday.

The airport shutdowns came after a string of disruptions at European airports in recent days.

A cyberattack last Friday knocked out check-in and boarding systems supplied by Collins Aerospace, a unit of RTX, affecting operations at London’s Heathrow and the Berlin and Brussels airports. Over the weekend and into Monday, the fallout continued to snarl travel across the region. — Reuters

KYIV — Russia has unleashed a massive wave of attacks on Ukraine’s railways since the summer, using new tactics to hit key nodes with long-range drones, but the network is holding up for now, the CEO of the state railway company told Reuters.

“Their first aim is to sow panic among passengers, their second aim is to hit the overall economy,” Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said in an interview held in a rail carriage at Kyiv’s central station.

There did not appear to be a particular focus on targeting military cargo. “These are all, in essence, strikes on civilian infrastructure,” he said.

RAILWAY ATTACKS HAVE INTENSIFIED
Ukrzaliznytsia, the vast state-owned railway company, employs 170,000 people and has been the target of Russian attacks since the start of Russia’s invasion three-and-a-half years ago, but attacks have intensified, causing regular delays.

Since the start of the war in February 2022, the railway network has been a lifeline for people moving around Ukraine and out of the country, as all civilian flights have been grounded.

World leaders, from French President Emmanuel Macron to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former US President Joseph R. Biden, have arrived in wartime Ukraine by train.

The rail company’s popular sleeper carriages are seen as a reliable way to travel overnight and arrive early in the morning in cities many hundreds of miles away, until the latest Russian onslaught began to delay passengers by several hours.

The railway is also crucial for transporting military equipment and commercial cargo, although volumes of the latter have dropped significantly in wartime, denting the company’s finances.

Mr. Pertsovskyi said the attacks, which have hit dozens of substations, were linked to the dramatic increase in long-range drones that Russia’s military-industrial complex is producing.

“Previously, they simply did not have sufficient resources for a single combat drone, such as a Shahed, to hunt down a locomotive. Now they can afford to use Shaheds to hit individual locomotives rather than strategic targets.”

QUICK RECOVERY BUT AT A COST
For now, the railway is recovering from each blow, he said.

The immediate disruption to trains after an attack usually lasts six to 12 hours and electric locomotives are switched out for diesel while power is restored.

Mr. Pertsovskyi said disruption had been minimized and the transit of military cargoes had not been impacted.

“It’s a marathon … They strike us, we recover,” he said. “They strike us, we recover.”

Since the middle of summer, Russia has attacked railway electricity substations and other infrastructure nodes with an average of six to seven long-range Shahed kamikaze drones most nights, according to Mr. Pertsovskyi.

“They are … acting systematically, knocking out one substation after another or key rail hubs in order to stop passenger trains and sow panic and distrust among the people.”

Five or six key rail hubs have been bombarded since the summer, he said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Russia denies targeting Ukrainian civilians.

The railway also faces sabotage from agents recruited by Russia in Ukraine. Ukraine’s security services regularly announce the detention of people they accuse of plotting to blow up vulnerable points on the network.

This is less of a threat than Russian airstrikes, but sabotage is on the rise with dozens of cases recorded this year, Mr. Pertsovskyi said.

And diesel locomotives are about five times more expensive to run per kilometer than their electric equivalents — an additional headache for a company with deep financial issues.

The World Bank estimates that roughly 30% of Ukraine’s railway is in a “damage-repair” cycle.

Some bridges had been hit many times over by Russian forces throughout the war and repaired each time, but Mr. Pertsovskyi declined to specify which ones, citing security reasons. The company would keep up the pace of repairs, he said.

“If we slow down a little and let the enemy strike and destroy, then they will be even more drawn to the smell of blood.” — Reuters