Finland says Russian vessel violated territorial waters

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

The Finnish defense ministry and coast guard announced the violation in the eastern Gulf of Finland in separate statements — the latest of several recent border incidents between the two countries.

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

It said the vessel traveled about 1.2 nautical miles in Finnish territorial waters and left them seven minutes later.

It said a Finnish patrol boat tried several times to contact the Russian vessel without success.

Relations between the countries, who share a 1,340-kilometer-long border, have worsened since Finland joined the western military alliance NATO last year, in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The previous territorial incident took place on 10 June when Finnish authorities said four Russian state aircraft entered Finland’s airspace off the coast in the same region.

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

Announcing Friday’s incident earlier, Finland’s defense ministry said the border guard force was investigating.

Finland closed its land border with Russia in December, accusing Moscow of trying to destabilize it by enabling undocumented migrants to enter Finnish territory.