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Hoax bomb threats that have disrupted air travel in Europe this week also reached television broadcasters in Ireland and Bulgaria on Friday. The sender, who identified himself as “Mikhail Andropov,” claimed responsibility for threats targeting passenger aircraft.
Ireland’s public broadcaster RTÉ evacuated its offices and suspended programming after receiving one of the emails. Bulgaria’s Nova TV was also targeted, while Britain’s Sky said it had received a security threat. The emails had the subject line “A message to the West” and presented the threats as the opening stage of a series of attacks on transport across Europe, AnewZ reported.
Reuters was unable to establish who sent the emails, where they originated or whether they were linked to threats targeting dozens of flights affected since Tuesday. No explosive devices were found. All threatened aircraft, including those targeted on Friday, landed safely.
European officials call threats “psychological warfare”
The threats to newsrooms have heightened European officials’ concerns that the incidents could be part of a “hybrid” disruption campaign against countries supporting Ukraine. Many officials have blamed Russia for such campaigns, while Moscow has denied involvement.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Europe was being targeted by “hybrid aggression” and a “form of psychological warfare.” No country has officially accused anyone over the threats.
Security experts said on Thursday that the threats could be intended to punish European countries that have provided Ukraine with weapons or financial assistance since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. They also noted, however, that individuals might plant false leads, send threats while impersonating others or act out of personal grievances.
More than 10 hoax threats were reported on Friday, but their direct impact on air travel had eased. The movement of about six flights was disrupted on Tuesday and more than two dozen on Thursday. Some aircraft made unscheduled landings, while others reached their destinations escorted by fighter jets.
A source at Italy’s airport authority said a Wizz Air flight from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice on Friday. Disruptions elsewhere were more limited than on previous days of the week.
NATO joins air patrols in the region
Hungarian fighter jets escorted passenger aircraft in Hungarian airspace on Friday, including flights from Brussels to Sofia, from Prague to Bucharest and to Cyprus. Hungary’s Defense Minister Romulus Rusin-Szendi said NATO had ordered some air patrols in the region. This was the first report of the alliance responding to the threats.
The threats came after acts of sabotage, or attempted sabotage, against a range of targets in Europe, including electrical substations, defense-related facilities in the Baltic region and supermarket refrigeration units in France and elsewhere. Germany has directly accused Russia over a drone attack on Leipzig Airport.
Many European officials describe these incidents as “hybrid” or “gray-zone” operations: they are inexpensive to carry out, easy to deny and not expected to trigger an armed response.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, told Reuters on Thursday that Europe had faced hybrid operations since 2022, including sabotage of critical infrastructure, drone incursions into airspace, cyberattacks and election interference.
“We are constantly under attack. The aim of these operations is to destabilize our societies and create distrust among our citizens,” Virkkunen said. She added: “Russia is not always behind the various hybrid operations. Often, however, it is.”
Questions over who was behind the threats were further complicated by a separate claim. A source at an airport in Italy said on Thursday that several airlines and airport operators in Rome and Milan had received bomb threats in the name of the “Male State” movement. The Male State, which is banned in Russia, is a far-right, anti-feminist movement.
Reuters could not verify who sent the email. Russian blogger Vladislav Pozdnyakov, who founded the Male State in 2016, said the movement no longer existed and had no connection to the incident.
