Shadows of hybrid war in the Italian skies trigger investigations by the anti-terrorism pool of the Milan prosecutor's office and checks by the Italian services. The detection by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra, on Lake Maggiore, has put investigators and investigators on alert: the EU research facility has intercepted a drone of suspected Russian origin that allegedly flew over the same area, in the Varese area, five times in the last month.
The very people in charge of the European Joint Research Centre, which has started a research project on the safety aspects of drones, then reported what was happening, triggering more in-depth checks. The main objective is to dispel any suspicion that this affair could be based on attempts to espionage sensitive targets covered by national and European security constraints . Also because a handful of kilometres away there are Leonardo factories, the national defence industrial company, while further away, in Solbiate Olona, there is the operational headquarters of a NATO command and in Pavia another research site with an applied nuclear energy laboratory.
What happened adds to another mystery that involved a tragedy that occurred in 2023 in the same area - in Sesto Calende - with the shipwreck caused by bad weather of the Love Lake vessel, on which the secret agents of the Aise and the Israeli Mossad died. At the moment - explain security sources following the case - there is "maximum caution" on the dynamics and paternity of the action and it seems difficult to think of drones capable of traveling from Russia to Italy.
There are currently no eyewitnesses, the electronic aircraft would have been intercepted by a radio frequency detection system that would have indicated a Russian-made device. However, the type is not one that can travel for many kilometers, so it would have possibly taken off from a base not far from the area it would have flown over.
While the investigations by the investigators continue, the Copasir would also be inclined to acquire more elements before ordering further investigations. It is not excluded that the issue may have already been addressed in a preliminary manner at the Interministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic, which was held last Friday and in which Matteo Piantedosi, whose ministry has jurisdiction over the protection of critical infrastructures on national soil, also participated as per practice.
What is the Joint Research Centre?
The EU Joint Research Centre in Ispra, a town of 5,000 inhabitants on the left bank of Lake Maggiore in the province of Varese, is the third largest research centre of the European Commission after Brussels and Luxembourg.
Founded in 1957 to provide evidence-based support to EU policies, independently of national, commercial or private interests, it is now considered one of the leading research campuses in Europe and is equipped with numerous state-of-the-art laboratories and infrastructures.
The site's staff work in a variety of fields, including nuclear safety, energy efficiency, climate change and space. One of its laboratories is the so-called WaterLab, which uses advanced equipment to analyse water to determine whether it contains chemicals that are harmful to health or the environment. Another laboratory is the European solar test installation (Esti), a research centre that has been active since the 1970s and has been at the forefront of defining European and global standards for photovoltaics.
In a crisis room (ECML) scientists monitor possible natural disasters and support states both in managing emergencies and in trying to anticipate a disaster before it happens. Here scientists are involved, also through the use of satellites of the Copernicus program, in studying earthquakes, fires, floods and landslides to try to limit the damage they can cause to the population.
(Online Union)
