Finland says Russian ship violated territorial waters

HELSINKI (AFP) — Finnish authorities said a Russian research vessel violated their territorial waters on Friday, amid growing tensions between the neighbors following Helsinki’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Finnish Ministry of Defence and the Coast Guard announced the breach in the eastern Gulf of Finland in separate statements. It is the latest of several recent border incidents between the two countries.

“The Russian Baltic Fleet research vessel Mikhail Kazansky crossed the outer border of Finnish territorial waters east of Helsinki early Tuesday afternoon,” the coast guard said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

According to the report, the ship sailed approximately 1.2 nautical miles into Finnish territorial waters and left them seven minutes later.

According to the report, a Finnish patrol boat attempted to contact the Russian vessel several times, but was unsuccessful.

Relations between the countries, which share a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border, have deteriorated since Finland joined the Western military alliance NATO last year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The previous territorial incident occurred on June 10, when Finnish authorities reported that four Russian state aircraft entered Finnish airspace off the coast in the same region.

The plane remained in Finnish airspace for about two minutes and flew up to 2.5 kilometers into Finnish territory, the ministry said at the time.

The Finnish Ministry of Defence announced the incident on Friday and said the Border Guard is investigating.

Finland closed its land borders with Russia in December, saying Moscow is trying to destabilize the borders by allowing illegal migrants to enter Finnish territory.