Swedish and Finnish combat aircraft were sent as a matter of urgency on Thursday on a Russian aircraft reconnaissance mission over the Gulf of Finland, the military authorities in Helsinki said today.
© Reuters
25/09/2026
by
Lusa
The rapid alert mission (ARQ) of the two Nordic countries identified a Russian detachment composed of a Tu-134 transport aircraft and MiG-31 and Su-30 fighters “in international airspace over the Gulf of Finland”, detailed Finnish forces.
According to the Air Force, this was the first joint operational “identification mission” for the two air forces.
“The Baltic Sea has never been as vulnerable as today — but it has never been as well protected as it is at the moment,” wrote Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, on social media, referring to the operation.
Tensions in the Baltic Sea have increased significantly in recent years and Nordic fighters are often sent to intercept Russian aircraft.
On September 2, the Finnish authorities announced that they were investigating a “possible territorial violation” after the discovery of a stranded naval drone on an island of the Porvoo archipelago in the Gulf of Finland.
After the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, both Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of non-military alignment and joined the Atlantic Alliance.
On Wednesday, Finland signed an agreement with Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York to strengthen cooperation on drones and their defence capabilities.
On 14 September Helsinki decided to join the advanced nuclear deterrence protocol proposed by France.
On September 7, Finland opened a 200-kilometre fence, erected on several sections along the border with Russia, to deter Moscow from instrumentalising migrants “in order to destabilise” the country.