Denmark has accused a Russian warship of firing two emergency flares at one of its helicopters while it was tracking the vessel in the Baltic Sea. The Danish government has summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident, which it said happened during a "routine" monitoring operation on Monday.

Russia said it would "thoroughly investigate" the incident but accused Danish helicopters of making "dangerous manoeuvres" near Russian warships. It came on the same day that Nato forces shot down a drone over Lithuania in the latest security scare on the alliance's eastern flank, where tensions remain high amid Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement detailing the incident in the Baltic Sea, the Danish armed forces said: " 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." Of the two flares fired at the helicopter, one passed close to it, the statement added.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen accused Russia of "gradually shifting the boundary for what they consider acceptable behaviour", adding: " That is something we cannot accept." Barbin said this was "not the first time that Danish Air Force helicopters have carried out dangerous manoeuvres near Russian warships".

Russia's behaviour was "reckless and dangerous," the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on social media. This incident – together with the drone over Lithuania – was "part of a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe", she added.

Danish Defence Minister Jeppe Bruus told Reuters no attempt to make contact with helicopters had been made by the frigate's crew. Overnight, Nato fighter pilots shot down a drone that entered Lithuania's airspace.

Authorities said the drone likely entered southern Lithuania, near the second-largest city of Kaunas, from neighbouring Belarus shortly after midnight on Tuesday. The origins of the drone have yet to be determined, the Lithuanian national crisis management centre said, but the country's president pointed to increased Russian aggression in recent months.

President Gitanas Nausėda wrote on X: " With Russia intensifying its aggression against Ukraine, such readiness is vital for our region. Together with our Nato Allies, Lithuania will defend its airspace."