(Bloomberg) — Finland’s defense forces are investigating the origins of several drones that entered their airspace before crashing Sunday morning.
The drones are probably stray Ukrainian vehicles destined for Russia, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo signaled, according to public broadcaster YLE.
This is the first time drones have entered Finnish airspace since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago.
The Finnish Air Force conducted identification operations with an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet after detecting several small, slow-moving objects flying at low altitude, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
One drone fell east of Kouvola in the southeastern part of the country, the ministry said. Another, which crashed north of the city, was identified as a Ukrainian AN196, the air force said in a separate statement, adding that some of the objects observed turned out to be flocks of birds.
A third unidentified drone landed on sea ice near the city of Espoo, which is part of the metropolitan area that includes the capital Helsinki, police said.
“We take this matter very seriously,” Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said. “Security authorities responded immediately. Investigations into the events are ongoing and further details will be provided as information is verified.”
Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia, has stepped up surveillance in the Gulf of Finland after Ukrainian drones targeted key Russian oil ports in the Baltic Sea in recent days. The port of Primorsk is about 50 kilometers from the Finnish border, while Ust-Luga is close to the demarcation with Estonia.
Several Ukrainian drones went off course during these attacks, with one hitting a power plant chimney in Estonia and others crashing in Latvia and Lithuania.
“Russia is conducting strong electronic jamming, which may explain why these drones also wandered into Finnish airspace,” Orpo said on Sunday, adding that Finland had not shot them down.
Defense forces are on high alert due to Ukraine’s drone operations, the Air Force said.
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