Finland denounces the second Russian violation of its airspace in a month

The Finnish Ministry of Defense reported this Wednesday that it has opened an investigation for a violation of its airspace by a Russian official aircraft, the second such incident in a month.

The aircraft violated Finnish airspace around 10:40 a.m. local time. near the towns of Kesälahti and Parikkala, along the Finnish-Russian border, reported the Ministry of Defense.

According to local media, it is a Russian Mi-17 military helicopter that entered about 4 kilometers into Finnish territory, although the authorities have not wanted to reveal how long it flew over the airspace of the Nordic country.

The incident occurred the same day the Finnish Armed Forces carry out military maneuvers in the west of the country, in which troops from the United States, Great Britain, Estonia and Latvia also participate.

Last April 8, the Finnish Ministry of Defense denounced another violation of its airspace, in this case by a Russian official plane.

the device, an Ilyushin IL-96-300 that left Moscow and was headed for Berlin, According to the Flightradar24 site, it flew over Finnish airspace for about three minutes near Porvoo, about fifty kilometers from Helsinki.

The Finnish Defense Minister, Antti Kaikkonen then stated on Twitter that Finland It “always” takes violations of its airspace seriously.

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“Our territorial surveillance capacity is good and we detect all violations and we are able to respond to them effectively,” the minister said.

Finland is discussing the possibility of apply to join NATO in the coming weeks, possibly at the same time as Sweden, and has received serious threats from neighboring Russia, which rejects the expansion of the Alliance towards Eastern Europe.