A Russian government fleet aircraft is suspected of violating Finnish airspace in the Gulf of Finland off Porvoo on Friday morning. According to the Ministry of Defence, the suspected airspace violation by a IL-96-300 lasted three minutes.
The ministry's communications office told Yle that this was the first violation of Finnish territory this year. The most recent previous violation of Finnish airspace by a Russian plane was in July 2020.
Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen (Cen) tweeted that Finland always takes airspace violations seriously.
"Our territorial surveillance capability is good and we detect all territorial violations and are able to respond to them effectively," he added in Finnish.
The Border Guard has started a preliminary investigation into the case.