Danish PM Slams 'Reckless Action' of Russian Frigate Firing Flares

A Russian warship has fired two emergency flares at a Danish helicopter in the Baltic Sea, with the Russian ambassador summoned over the incident, Denmark officials said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred on Monday, the same day that NATO jets shot down a drone over Lithuania, the latest security incident on the alliance's eastern flank during Russia's war with Ukraine.

"One of the air force's Fennec helicopters was today fired at with flares during a routine photographic operation of a Russian frigate, which was located in international waters off Gedser," the armed forces said in a statement late Monday.

The frigate had fired "two flares towards the helicopter. One of the flares passed at close range to the helicopter," it added.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen slammed the incident as "reckless action from Russia".

"Russian actions are meant to intimidate and divide. They will not succeed. We will not waver," Frederiksen said in a statement on X.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen meanwhile said the actions were "completely unacceptable and could have put human lives at risk".

"I have therefore summoned the Russian ambassador for a discussion the incident," he said in a statement sent to AFP.

"Russia is gradually shifting the boundary for what they consider acceptable behavior," he warned.

"That is something we cannot accept," he said.

Danish media reported that Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus had summoned representatives of the parties in parliament for a briefing on the incident at the defense ministry.

Tensions over the Baltic Sea have risen sharply since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

US Military Says It Destroyed 2 Small Iranian Boats Trying to Steal a Drone

The US military said Tuesday that it opened fire and destroyed two small Iranian boats this week trying to steal a drone ship in the waters off Iran.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, US Central Command spokesman said that “Iranian small boats recently attempted to take possession of a US unmanned surface vessel, but they were unsuccessful after CENTCOM forcefully responded."

Iranian state media reported Monday that a pair of fishing boats came under attack in Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast and that several fishermen were reported missing, citing a provincial official.

It is the latest volley of fire in the more than six-month-old war as both sides seek control over the Strait of Hormuz, where the US has succeeded in recent weeks in loosening Iran’s grip over the critical energy shipping corridor. But the impact of the unpopular conflict has driven up the cost of oil and gasoline prices, posing political problems for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party.

Hawkins said Tuesday that the drone involved is a “Saildrone” — a small, roughly 25-foot (8-meter) craft — that can operate by itself. US Central Command has been using them in the region for several years to surveil maritime traffic.

Hawkins said all of the command’s surface drones “remain fully accounted for.” The military has long asserted that the technology on the Saildrones is commercially available and not sensitive in nature.

The latest drone incident, which was reported earlier by Axios, comes a week after Iranian state television reported that the country's navy captured one of the US military’s underwater drones at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.

Hawkins said then that an Anduril Dive-LD drone had malfunctioned while it was surveying the waters in the region and that the US military no longer had possession of it.

He stressed that the drone was defective and noted that it was also an “older model that neither collected sensitive data no carried any classified sonar or radar equipment.”

UK, US and Netherlands Issue Advisory on Iran-Linked Spyware

Britain, the United States and the Netherlands on Tuesday issued a joint cybersecurity advisory detailing spyware they say is used by Iranian state-linked actors to target dissidents, activists and journalists.

Britain's National Cyber Security Centre said Iranian state-linked cyber actors had used a spyware family known as "CHOSEN ‌BRICK" to steal ‌emails, messages and other ‌sensitive information ⁠through "spear-phishing" campaigns on ⁠messaging platforms including WhatsApp and Telegram.

"The details of this cyber campaign reveal how Iran ruthlessly uses digital surveillance in pursuit of its aim to repress critics of the regime, stealing emails and messages and accessing ⁠devices," Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations, ‌said in ‌a statement.

Iran's embassy in London did not immediately ‌respond to a request for .

The malware, ‌according to the advisory, can collect information from lists, emails and social media accounts, capture screen content and access a device's microphone. ‌The NCSC said some victims' personal details had later appeared on pro-Iranian ⁠leak ⁠sites.

The NCSC said the attackers often posed as trusted contacts on messaging apps and tailored their approach to individual targets. In some cases, it said, they used fake documents, including fabricated MRI test results, to persuade victims to download the malware.

The NCSC, alongside the FBI and the Netherlands' AIVD intelligence service, said Iran "almost certainly" uses cyber operations to help suppress people it sees as threats.

EU Must Impose ‘Greater Cost’ on Russia to Curb ‘Hybrid Attacks’, Says Kallas

The European Union must ramp up measures against the Kremlin, including reviewing the issuance of tourist visas to Russians, to counter Moscow's "hybrid attacks", foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday.

"Despite international efforts to end the war, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin chooses to intensify his war of aggression against Ukraine and hostilities against Europe, and one thing is very clear: Putin will not stop unless he is stopped," Kallas told the European Parliament.

"So, as Russia is willing to take greater risks, Europe must impose a greater cost."

Europe is grappling with what Kallas called a "steady increase in hybrid attacks" by Russia designed to weaken support for Ukraine.

Fears rose over the summer when an explosive-laden drone was discovered at a German airport in an incident Berlin blamed on Moscow.

Beyond ramping up support for Kyiv and sanctioning the Kremlin, Kallas said the EU should look to increase controls on Russians coming into the bloc.

"We can tighten control further over the movement of Russian diplomats within Schengen. We can ban issuing visas for Russian ex-combatants, and we should review the issuance of tourist fissures to Russian citizens," she said.

"We must reduce the pool of people conducting attacks on European soil."

Kallas also urged EU states to better intelligence and step up the use of artificial intelligence to tackle Russian disinformation.

While the EU eyes more measures, officials admit that the West is struggling to halt actions from Moscow that float in a grey zone beneath open conflict.

"We have all the response options we need when it comes to hybrid. It will not always be visible and public, what we do," NATO chief Mark Rutte said Monday.

"The most important one, of course, is making sure that Ukraine has what it needs to stay in the fight."

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