Russia accused again of incursion by NATO member

Countries see these incursions as ‘provocations’

Just a day earlier, the defence ministry of another NATO member, Romania, said that its radar system detected a group of aerial targets near the country's border with Ukraine.

After a drone entered the airspace of Romania and following a wave of brutal overnight strikes on Ukraine, NATO scrambled fighter jets, as revealed by Romania's defence ministry.

And now it’s Finland’s defence ministry that has accused Russia of an incursion into its airspace.

As per the Finnish ministry, a Russian aircraft is suspected of violating airspace over the Baltic Sea.

What Finland said about the suspected incursion by Russia

Antti Hakkanen, the country’s defence minister, said that the Finnish Border Guard is now leading the investigations which are under way.

A Russian IL-20 reconnaissance plane is suspected of violating airspace in the Western Gulf of Finland for around three minutes, the border guard said.

It was around 8.7km inside Finnish territory, at its deepest incursion.

Regarding the suspected violation of its airspace, Finland’s foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador and requested an explanation.

Countries have denounced as “provocations” the increase in Russian military flights near the eastern flank of NATO.

A Russian military plane aircraft was also suspected of entering Finnish airspace while avoiding thunderstorms, in May of this year.

Finland officially became NATO's 31st member in April 2023, ending decades of military non-alignment.

This decision to join the alliance was driven by a major shift in national security policy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.