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Finland summoned Russia’s ambassador Friday and requested an explanation after a Russian reconnaissance aircraft was suspected of violating Finnish airspace for about three minutes, authorities said.
Finland’s Foreign Ministry said on X that the ambassador had been summoned over the suspected violation, which the Defense Ministry first reported Thursday evening.
The Finnish Border Guard said the aircraft was a Russian IL-20 reconnaissance plane that entered Finnish airspace Thursday afternoon.
The suspected violation took place over the western Gulf of Finland, south of the island of Uto.
According to the Border Guard, the aircraft reached about 4.7 nautical miles, or 9 kilometers, inside Finnish airspace before leaving.
The Border Guard has launched a preliminary investigation into the incident.
“Every suspected violation of airspace is taken seriously,” Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said Thursday.
Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer, or 830-mile, border with Russia and has experienced a series of suspected airspace violations in recent years.
The Nordic country abandoned its decades-long policy of military non-alignment and joined NATO in April 2023.
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