Sweden confirms Russian drone jammed near French carrier in Øresund amid Ukraine war and hybrid-threat concerns
Stockholm — 28 February 2026
Sweden has confirmed that a drone jammed near a French aircraft carrier in the Øresund strait this week was Russian, sharpening concerns that Moscow is widening its hybrid tactics against European countries backing Ukraine.
The Swedish military said on Friday that the drone disrupted by a Swedish navy vessel was Russian. The jamming took place on Thursday when the drone was operating about 13km from France’s flagship, the Charles de Gaulle, while the carrier was in the Øresund stretch of water between Sweden and Denmark.
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking on board the Charles de Gaulle on Friday, said that if Russian involvement was confirmed, “the only conclusion I would draw is that it would be a ridiculous provocation”. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, rejected the claim, calling Barrot’s statement “quite an absurd statement”.
The Øresund incident comes as European governments warn that Russia is increasingly blending military pressure on Ukraine with actions aimed at unsettling and testing Ukraine’s supporters—through disruption, intimidation and other forms of “hybrid” activity that can be difficult to deter without escalating.
The latest episode also follows heightened sensitivity in the region over drone activity linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Romania said on Thursday it scrambled fighter jets after a drone breached its national airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine, as the risk of spillover from strikes and surveillance activity continues to worry European states.
Sweden, which has strengthened its security posture in response to the war, has repeatedly said that support for Ukraine goes hand in hand with protecting the stability and security of the wider European area. The confirmation that the Øresund drone was Russian is likely to intensify scrutiny of how Russia uses low-level incidents to probe responses, shape perceptions and keep pressure on the coalition supporting Kyiv.
As the war continues, the message from Stockholm and other European capitals has been that Ukraine’s battlefield resilience and Europe’s internal resilience are increasingly connected—particularly when Russia’s tactics shift between conventional attacks inside Ukraine and ambiguous, deniable actions beyond it. READ MORE HERE.