HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finland’s foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned Russia’s Helsinki ambassador over a suspected violation of Finnish airspace that took place last week. NATO member Finland on Friday said it believed two Russian military aircraft entered its airspace off the coast of Porvoo in the southern part of the Nordic country, and […]
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Finland summons Russian ambassador over suspected airspace violation
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HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finland’s foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned Russia’s Helsinki ambassador over a suspected violation of Finnish airspace that took place last week.
NATO member Finland on Friday said it believed two Russian military aircraft entered its airspace off the coast of Porvoo in the southern part of the Nordic country, and that the Finnish Border Guard was investigating the incident.
“The ambassador was told that Finland takes the suspected territorial violation seriously,” the Finnish foreign ministry said in a statement to Reuters.
The ambassador had indicated he would pass on the message, the ministry said without elaborating.
Russia’s embassy in Helsinki did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, with the NATO alliance boosting its presence in the area with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Terje Solsvik)