Russian jet incursion prompts Finnish investigation near Loviisa
9:06 AM EDT, June 11, 2024
In the Gulf of Finland region, a Russian military aircraft crossed into Finnish territory. The suspected aircraft operated within approximately 1.5 miles from the border for about 2 minutes, the Finnish Ministry of National Defense reported. It was the first such incident in almost two years.
The incident occurred on Monday morning in the vicinity of Loviisa, located about 56 miles east of Helsinki. "We take the suspected border violation seriously, and an investigation was initiated immediately," said Minister Antti Häkkänen.
The last time Russia was confirmed to have violated Finnish airspace was in August 2022, when two Russian fighter jets flew over the Gulf of Finland.
Finnish forces participate in NATO mission
On Monday, the Finnish News Agency STT reported that seven Finnish F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets are beginning a historic operation for Finland to patrol the airspace over Romania and Bulgaria as part of a NATO mission.
As part of NATO's Air Shielding mission, Finnish pilots will operate from a Romanian base near Constanța. The dispatch emphasized that it is only a few hundred miles from there to the Russian-occupied Crimea, including the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol.
"As NATO, we are not approaching there and we do not provoke in any way. Our goal is to protect and secure NATO airspace over Romania and Bulgaria," said Lt. Col. Rami Lindström, commander of the Finnish squadron stationed daily in Karelia.
Finland was admitted to NATO on April 4, 2023, and Finnish fighter jets already participated in securing the NATO summit in Vilnius in July of last year.
