“The plane was a Mi-17 helicopter and the alleged depth of violation was four to five kilometers,” a Defense Ministry spokesman told the French news agency AFP.
The incident took place at 10:40 in Helsinki (08:40 in Lisbon).
This is the second time in a month that war has been raging in Ukraine, and for the second time since the beginning of this year, Helsinki has reported that a Russian plane has penetrated its airspace. .
On April 8, a Russian military-owned civilian airliner briefly entered Finnish airspace.
Security experts have acknowledged that Russia could try to intimidate Finland and Sweden as the two countries consider joining NATO to protect themselves from Moscow.
Four Russian warplanes crossed Swedish airspace in early March on the strategic island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
On Friday night, a Russian spy plane also crossed the air border near a naval base in southern Sweden.
Finnish President Sauli Ninisto is expected to make public his personal position on Finland’s potential candidacy for NATO membership on May 12, but already has strong public and parliamentary support.
According to the Finnish media, the government’s decision will be known in the coming days.
The possibility of Ukraine joining NATO was one of the reasons Russia used to justify the February 24 invasion of the neighboring country.
Russia shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Finland and a maritime border with Sweden.
The Moscow government has warned Finland and Sweden of the consequences of joining the Atlantic Alliance.
The two countries need to “understand the implications of such a move for our bilateral relations and the architecture of European security as a whole,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in mid-April.
Finland and Sweden are two of the six EU member states that are not part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta.
NATO has a total of 30 members, including the remaining 21 EU countries, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Albania, Montenegro, northern Macedonia, Norway and Iceland.
The UN has so far confirmed the deaths of more than 3,000 civilians in the war in Ukraine, which has prompted more than 5.5 million people to flee the country.
PNG // PDF
Lusa / end
“Hardcore explorer. Extreme communicator. Professional writer. General music practitioner. Prone to fits of apathy.”