HELSINKI, March 29 (Reuters) – Finland’s defence ministry reported on Sunday a suspected territorial violation by unmanned aerial vehicles in the southeast of the country.
Nearby countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania earlier this week said several Ukrainian drones had crashed on their territory after going astray during attacks on Russian oil export facilities on the Baltic Sea coast.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and export routes over recent weeks in an attempt to weaken Russia’s war economy and as peace talks, brokered by Washington, have stalled.
It was not immediately clear where the drones detected in Finland came from.
“Drones have strayed into Finnish territory. We are treating the matter very seriously,” Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen wrote in a social media post, adding an investigation was ongoing.
On Sunday morning, several small, slow-moving objects flying at low altitude were detected over a maritime area and in southeastern Finland, the ministry said in a statement.
One drone fell to the ground north of the town of Kouvola and another east of Kouvola, it added.
The Finnish Air Force carried out an identification mission with an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet, it said.
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki and Terje Solsvik in Oslo. Editing by Mark Potter)
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