Russia awards commander of ship that fired flares at Danish Air Force helicopter

“Belousov awarded the commander of the ship that fired two signal flares toward a Danish military helicopter in the Baltic Sea,” the report says. The commander of the Smetlivy corvette was awarded “for competent and decisive actions in preventing a provocation by a Danish Air Force helicopter in the Baltic Sea,” the ministry said. On September 14, while carrying out a mission in the southwestern part of the Baltic Sea, the corvette detected an aerial target that it identified as a Danish Air Force Fennec-type helicopter “approaching the Russian warship and failing to respond to calls over an international communications channel,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.