German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that he assumed Russia was responsible for many of the drones sighted over Germany this weekend, including those that disrupted flights and left over 10,000 passengers stranded at Munich Airport.

Merz emphasised the unprecedented frequency of these incursions in European airspace, noting that even during the Cold War such activity had not been seen.

He added that the frequency of the incursions in Europe’s airspace was unprecedented, even compared with Cold War times, but none of the drones spotted so far had been armed. All had been on reconnaissance flights, he said.

“Our assumption is that Russia is behind most of these drone flights,” Merz mentioned.

Drones were spotted at airports and military installations across Germany over the past two days, Bild newspaper quoted a confidential police report as saying, suggesting sightings this week at Munich Airport were the tip of the iceberg.

Dozens of flights were diverted or cancelled at Munich Airport on Friday after both runways were closed following the second drone sighting in two days. Operations resumed, with delays, on Saturday morning.

There was mounting concern that Russia could be behind a growing number of recent drone incursions in the airspace of Ukraine’s European allies, but the Kremlin denied any involvement.

The German defence ministry confirmed a media report that drones had been spotted flying over the Erding military base near Munich Airport at around the time of the airport’s first closure on Thursday evening.

European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions.

– Ends

With inputs from agencies