Finland said that a Russian military aircraft violated its airspace on Monday in the first such move since the Nordic country joined the NATO alliance last year.

Finland said that a Russian military aircraft violated its airspace on Monday in the first such move since the Nordic country joined the NATO alliance last year.

The plane flew in Finland’s airspace for about 2 minutes on Monday morning, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The incident happened in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, with the aircraft reaching as deep as 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) into Finland’s territory.

“We take the suspected territorial violation seriously and have immediately launched an investigation,” Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said. NATO Fortified

NATO controls much of the Baltic Sea after northern enlargement

The latest such incident happened in August 2022, when two Russian fighter jets flew into Finnish airspace. The Nordic nation joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in April 2023, just over a year after its neighbor Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine.

Finland guards more than 1,300 kilometers of border against Russia — a stretch that now makes up about a half of NATO’s Eastern flank.

  • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
    181·
    6 months ago

    2 minutes is probably not long enough to get shot down - which may well be why Russia made the incursion so brief.

    • acargitz@lemmy.caEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      On 24 November 2015, a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M attack aircraft near the Syria–Turkey border.[1][2] According to Turkey, the aircraft was fired upon while in Turkish airspace because it violated the border up to a depth of 2.19 kilometres (1.36 miles) for about 17 seconds after being warned to change its heading ten times over a period of five minutes before entering the airspace.

      (Wikipedia)

      • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        The difference is that was over land, this was over water. Turkey had also warned the aircraft several times - the OP article makes no mention of whether Finland were tracking or communicating with this one.