Finland now suspects that four Russian warplanes, not one, violated its airspace on June 10.
This is stated in the statement of the Finnish Border Guard Service.
During the investigation, it turned out that in addition to one Russian plane, which was immediately known, the airspace of the NATO country was violated, presumably, by two Russian bombers and two fighters.
Russian military aircraft flew 2.5 kilometers deep into Finnish territory near the city of Loviisa in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. The investigation is still ongoing.
"Of course, if these kinds of airspace violations happen, and if they are deliberate and serious, we respond to them, but the investigation is ongoing and the border guard is responsible for that," Finnish Armed Forces Commander Gen. Janne Jaakkola said in a statement to Reuters.
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, the Russian planes were accompanied by "fighters of foreign states."
Finland became a member of NATO on April 4, 2023.