BERLIN (Reuters) – A German defence ministry spokesperson could not confirm media reports on Wednesday about an incident between a German army helicopter and a Russian ship in the Baltic Sea.
According to the German press agency dpa, the crew of the Russian ship had fired signal ammunition. The helicopter had been on a reconnaissance mission, according to the report.
Asked about the report at a regular news conference, a spokesperson for the defence ministry said he could not confirm the incident.
There was no immediate Russian response to the German media reports.
The report cited German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as briefly mentioning the incident on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels but added that she did not give details.
On social media platform X, Baerbock said following the press reports that Russia was expanding its hybrid attacks in the Baltic Sea area and that NATO would bolster its monitoring and protection of critical infrastructure as a result.
Russian President Vladimir “Putin is attacking our peace order with hybrid attacks,” she wrote on X.
Last month two subsea cables – one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania – were damaged in less than 24 hours, prompting German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to say he assumed it was sabotage.
Sweden, Germany and Lithuania all launched criminal investigations last week, zeroing in on Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15.
Russia denied any responsibility for the damaged cables.
(Additional reporting by Christian Kraemer; Writing by Miranda Murray; Editing by Madeline Chambers and Gareth Jones)
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