Finland Ends Drone Alert After Scrambling Fighter Jets Over Helsinki

Finnish defence authorities stood down forces on Friday after sounding an alarm over suspected drone activity in airspace above the Helsinki region. The authorities said the suspected activity no longer posed a threat and the situation was returning to normal hours after launching an emergency response that included scrambling fighter jets and closing the capital’s airport for about three hours.

m. local time. A Hornet fighter jet of the Finnish Air Force was deployed as part of the response. The president wrote on X that authorities had demonstrated their readiness and capacity to react. The director general for rescue services at the Ministry of the Interior called the response a precautionary measure and said daily life can continue.

The incident illustrates tension in the region as Finland and the Baltic states monitor Russian aggression and daily missile and drone attacks amid Moscow’s continued war on Ukraine. In March two drones crossed into Finnish territory and crashed after flying low over the sea and southeastern Finland.

Finnish authorities did not indicate the source of Friday’s drone activity. The defence forces operations chief suggested that Finland had received information from Ukraine about drones potentially straying into the country but said there was no evidence that drones had entered Finland.

The military head added that such situations could happen again as long as Russia continues its war on Ukraine. The defence chief warned of more alarms as the Russian war persists.

The incident in Finnish airspace unfolded as Ukraine maintained drone attacks on Russian oil and energy infrastructure. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defence systems shot down 355 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and the border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk overnight.

An oil refinery in the central city of Ryazan, about 200 kilometres southeast of Moscow, was among the targets. The attack killed three people and wounded 12, according to the regional governor, who said two high-rise apartment buildings were struck and debris fell on an industrial site.

In Kyiv the death toll from a Russian barrage on an apartment building the previous day rose to at least 24 people, including three children. Forty-eight people were wounded. Russia and Ukraine completed a prisoner swap that saw 205 prisoners of war repatriated on each side.

It was the first step of a larger exchange planned to ultimately see 1,000 people on each side return home. The two sides also exchanged bodies of those killed in the fighting, with Russia handing over 526 and receiving 41. Both sides thanked the United Arab Emirates for mediating the swap.