Finland suspects a Russian plane of violating its airspace — for the first time since the country joined NATO

Finland suspects that a Russian military aircraft violated the countryʼs airspace in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland near the city of Loviisa on the morning of June 10.

This was announced by the Ministry of Defense of Finland.

Previously, the Russian plane was in the airspace of Finland for about two minutes and flew to a depth of 2.5 kilometers from the border. The countryʼs Defense Minister Anttii Haakanen said the department "takes this breach seriously" and has launched an investigation.

The last time Russian planes violated Finnish airspace was in August 2022, that is, before Finland joined NATO. Then two Russian fighter jets flew into Finnish airspace in the Gulf of Finland.

On June 10, the Ministry of Defense of Russia wrote that Russian long-range aircraft performed scheduled flights in the airspace over the "neutral waters of the Baltic, Barents and Norwegian Seas." Tu-95ms strategic missile carriers and Tu-22m3 long-range bombers were involved in the flights. In Russia, it was clarified that on certain stages of the route, Russian planes were accompanied by "fighters of foreign states."