Russian aircraft breaches Finnish airspace amid nato mission

In the Gulf of Finland region, a Russian military aircraft crossed into Finnish territory. The Finnish Ministry of National Defence reported that the suspected aircraft operated within approximately 1.5 miles of the border for about 2 minutes. It was the first such incident in almost two years.

The incident occurred Monday morning in Loviisa, about 90 kilometres east of Helsinki. Minister Antti Hakkanen said, "We take the suspected border violation seriously, and an investigation was initiated immediately."

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.

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.

Finnish pilots will operate from the Romanian base near Constanța as part of NATO's Air Shielding mission. 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 Lindstroem, commander of the Finnish squadron stationed daily in Karelia.

Finland was admitted to NATO on 4 April 2023, and Finnish fighter jets already secured the NATO summit in Vilnius in July of last year.