What Happened
Kremlin Conducts Covert Drone Operations Against European Airports
A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) assesses that Russia likely conducted a drone campaign over Europe between August 2024 and February 2026, using shadow fleet ships as launch and recovery platforms. The campaign forced repeated closures of major European airports, including Copenhagen, Brussels, and Munich. The report compiles a dataset of 144 incidents across 13 European states, with approximately 48% of sightings occurring over military facilities. The IISS report was published in AeroTime.