On the night of September 22, unidentified drones were spotted flying over the Murmelon-le-Grand military base in the Marne department in northeastern France. The base covers more than 10 000 hectares.
This is reported by the international French radio RFI and France 3, citing AFP.
On September 25, the information was confirmed by the relevant state service. The departmental military delegation of the Marne department reported to AFP about the unidentified UAVs over the military base.
The agency clarified that these were small devices, “not drones operated by the military”. They called the incident “exceptional” and stressed that at this time there is no reason to believe that it could be a matter of foreign intervention.
Last year, the Murmelon-le-Grand military base hosted Ukrainian soldiers for training as part of the Champagne Task Force. This year, the base is home to, among other things, the Tactical Drone Training Center.
An investigation is currently underway. Following the incident, measures were taken at the base to increase vigilance.
Violation of NATO airspace by Russia
On the night of September 10, Polish airspace was violated by Russian drones during Russiaʼs attack on Ukraine. This was the first time that Polish aviation shot down drones over its territory.
On the evening of September 13, Russian drones once again flew into Romanian territory. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the drone entered Romanian territory by almost 10 km and was in the airspace of a NATO country for approximately 50 minutes.
Drone debris was also found on the beaches of Bulgaria and Latvia.
Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland without permission on September 19 and remained there for a total of 12 minutes.
On September 23, the main airport in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, was closed for four hours because of drones. At that time, police did not shoot down the unidentified UAVs. Denmark called the incident the most serious attack on its critical infrastructure and linked it to a series of Russian drone incursions and other violations across Europe.
That same night, drones were recorded over Norway’s main airport.
On the night of September 25, Denmark closed “Aalborg” Airport in the north of the country due to drones in the airspace.
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