Denmark says to buy ‘long-range precision weapons’ amid Russia threat

COPENHAGEN: Denmark said Wednesday that it would for the first time acquire “long-range precision weapons”, citing the need to deter Russia, as Moscow’s ambassador to Copenhagen called the move “pure madness”.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference that the move was “a paradigm shift in Danish defence policy”.

“For the first time, Denmark is to build up military capacity in the form of long-range precision weapons,” she told reporters.

Frederiksen added that Russia would constitute a threat to Denmark and Europe “for years to come” and a decision was made to create a “credible deterrence”.

“With these weapons, the defence forces will be able to hit targets at long range and, for example, neutralise enemy missile threats,” she added, saying the weapons could for example be either missiles or drones.

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Vladimir Barbin, the Russian ambassador to Denmark, called the Danish justification about the need to be able to strike distant targets “pure madness”.

“No one, anywhere, ever in the world has considered threatening a nuclear power publicly. These statements will undoubtedly be taken into account,” Barbin said in a written statement on Telegram.

“From now on, we must assume that Denmark is not only considering the possibility of a direct military confrontation with Russia, but is also preparing for such a scenario,” he added.

Speaking to broadcaster DR, Frederiksen said the ambassador’s comments should be interpreted as a threat.

“Russia is trying to threaten Europe and NATO into not defending our people and borders. Of course, we will not be intimidated,” she told the broadcaster.

Denmark’s defence ministry said in a statement it would start looking into which long-range weapons best suited the country’s needs.

Rearmament has become a government priority under Social Democrats leader Frederiksen in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Last week, Denmark said it would invest some 58 billion kroner ($9.2 billion) in European-made air and missile defence systems.

In February, Frederiksen said Denmark would allocate an extra 50 billion kroner to defence spending over the next two years, urging the military to “buy, buy, buy”.