Open provocation

Russian ship enters Finnish waters

Against the backdrop of growing tensions on the Finnish-Russian border, a Russian reconnaissance ship has entered Finnish waters without permission, according to Finnish sources. Attempts to establish contact failed several times.

The Russian reconnaissance ship "Mikhail Kazansky" crossed the outer border of Finnish territorial waters east of Helsinki early on Tuesday afternoon, according to the coast guard.

It had advanced 1.2 nautical miles and left Finnish waters again after seven minutes, it added. A coast guard patrol boat tried to contact the Russian ship several times without success. The incident is being investigated, the Finnish Ministry of Defense announced.

Tensions between Helsinki and Moscow
Finnish-Russian relations have deteriorated significantly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result of the Russian war of aggression, Helsinki gave up its decades-long non-aligned status and joined NATO in April 2023.

In June, according to Finnish reports, four Russian state aircraft entered Finnish airspace for two minutes without permission. Because hundreds of migrants arrived at the Finnish-Russian border without visas last autumn, Helsinki closed its 1,340-kilometer border with Russia in December. Helsinki accused Moscow of deliberately smuggling people to the border and trying to trigger a migration crisis in Finland. Russia denies the accusations.

Kremlin: British fighter planes intercepted
Meanwhile, Russia has reportedly sent a Su-57 fighter jet to intercept two British fighter jets and a reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea. The British military aircraft then moved away from the Russian border, according to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow.