Ukraine issued a formal apology to Finland on Monday after two of its drones crashed in the country’s southeast over the weekend in what Finnish officials called a suspected territorial violation, marking the first time a Ukrainian armed drone has landed on Finnish soil since the Russia-Ukraine war began.
Finnish authorities identified one of the two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a Ukrainian AN-196 Liutyi long-range attack drone with a wingspan of 6.7 metres. It came down north of Kouvola, a city in southeastern Finland roughly 70 kilometres from the Russian border. A second drone landed east of the same city, in the municipality of Luumäki. No injuries or property damage were reported.
Police confirmed the drone that fell north of Kouvola was carrying an unexploded warhead. Authorities destroyed it in a controlled detonation after investigators completed their preliminary assessment. Officials are still examining whether the second drone exploded on impact with the ground.
The Finnish Air Force scrambled F/A-18 Hornet fighters after detecting several slow, low-flying objects over the Baltic Sea and southeastern Finland from 08:13 on Sunday morning. A pilot visually identified one of the objects as Ukrainian at 08:45 south of Kouvola but did not open fire to avoid collateral damage. By the time it was identified, both drones had already landed.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb called the incident a serious violation of sovereignty and convened an emergency government meeting. He stressed that Finland faced no military threat but said security authorities had reacted immediately.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi confirmed on Monday that both aircraft were Ukrainian and apologised to Helsinki. “Under no circumstances were any Ukrainian drones directed toward Finland. The most likely cause is interference by Russian electronic warfare systems,” Tykhyi said, adding that Kyiv shared the view that “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is the root cause of both this incident and the broader security challenges in the region.”
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said Helsinki has no intention of asking Ukraine to halt its strikes on Russian targets. “Ukraine is allowed to defend itself. We do not place any demands on Ukraine regarding which targets it seeks to influence in Russia,” she said.
The incident took place on the same morning that Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed its third strike in a week on the Ust-Luga oil terminal in Russia’s Leningrad region, a major petroleum export hub on the Gulf of Finland. The nearby port of Primorsk was also struck during the same campaign. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all reported Ukrainian drones crashing on their territory during the previous week as Kyiv intensified the same campaign targeting Russian Baltic oil infrastructure.
Finnish Air Force Commander Major General Timo Herranen warned at a news conference that drone activity in the country’s vicinity was likely to continue. “These are individual Ukrainian drones that have strayed into our territory,” he said. Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in April 2023.
