Finland suspects Russian aircraft of violating its airspace

The Ministry of Defense of Finland suspects two Russian aircraft of violating the country’s airspace.

This was reported by the official website of the Finnish Ministry of Defense.

The alleged violation of airspace by Russian military aircraft took place in the Gulf of Finland.

The incident occurred on May 23, 2025, in the afternoon near the city of Porvoo.

The Ministry of Defense of Finland has launched an investigation into the incident.

“We take the suspected violation seriously and are investigating,” said Antii Häkkänen, Finland’s defense minister.

It should be noted that Russian aviation activity near the country’s border has increased significantly since Finland officially joined NATO.

Since the beginning of 2025, Russian aircraft have violated Finnish airspace once, on February 7, 2025. At that time, the Finnish Ministry of Defense reported a suspected violation of airspace by a Russian government aircraft near the Hanko Peninsula. The aircraft was likely in Finnish airspace for several minutes.

Today, the Finnish Air Force’s air defense forces have two squadrons equipped with American F-18C fighter jets, which they use to patrol the airspace and intercept violators.

The aircraft patrol Finland’s border areas and operate within NATO’s Baltic operation to escort and intercept Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea.

Earlier, Militarnyi reported that Swedish and Finnish fighter jets took off to escort Russian fighter jets which flew over neutral waters in the Baltic Sea.

The escort of Russian aircraft took place on July 15, after NATO’s Combined Air Operations Center in Wede, Germany, reported two Russian fighter jets flying from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia.