On June 10, the Finnish Ministry of Defense reported a suspected violation of Finland’s airspace by a “Russian military aircraft” near the city of Loviisa, located less than 100 km from Helsinki.
“We take this suspected territorial violation seriously… The border guards are responsible for the preliminary investigation into cases of border violations,” said Antti Häkkänen, the Finnish Minister of Defense.
That day, Russian forces’ activity was quite significant. Several strategic bombers, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3, escorted by Su-30SM, Su-27, and Su-33 fighters, flew over the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Baltic Sea.
German Eurofighter EF-2000s based in Latvia under NATO were called upon to intercept two Su-27s and an Il-20 “Coot” electronic intelligence aircraft operating near the Baltic states without filing a flight plan and without transponders.
After four days of investigation, it is revealed that the violation was more severe than initially announced.
“As the investigation progresses, it has become clear that there were at least three other aircraft involved in this territorial violation. The violation was committed by a formation of four aircraft, including two bombers and two fighters. The investigation into the matter will continue over the coming week, and its final results will be communicated once it is completed,” explained the Finnish Border Guard agency under the Ministry of the Interior.
The Finnish Border Guard stated that, at its deepest, the violation extended 2.5 kilometers into Finnish territory.
The Ministry of Defense initially reported only one aircraft involved in the violation. According to Senior Lieutenant Antti Leskelä, who is leading the investigation, the Border Guard was aware of the aircraft near the border but only realized during the investigation how many of them had actually entered Finnish airspace.
According to Senior Lieutenant Antti Leskelä, who is leading the investigation, the investigation is looking into the aircraft’s exact flight paths and locations. The violation lasted about two minutes.
“These details are clarified through Finland’s own monitoring capabilities,” Leskelä told STT on Friday.
He couldn’t comment on how typical it is for four aircraft to fly into Finnish territory.
“I can’t immediately recall another case like this.”
Leskelä said that similar investigations usually last a week or two. The investigation into the airspace violation will continue next week.
In this case, although Finland had deployed four F/A-18 Hornets in Romania under NATO, the Finnish Air Force [Suomen ilmavoimat] did not appear to have reacted. At least, this was not mentioned in the initial statement from the Ministry of Defense.
It is also noteworthy that this “suspected” violation occurred while Russia was conducting nuclear exercises involving Belarus.
The last confirmed Russian aircraft violation of Finnish airspace occurred in August 2022. At that time, two Russian fighters entered Finnish airspace over the Gulf of Finland. One of its fighter jets was called upon to identify the two MiG-31s that briefly ventured into the country’s airspace.
