Finland was quietly warned by Ukraine that a swarm of its drones, packed with explosives, had been accidentally sent towards the Nordic nation’s airspace last month – an incident that had already prompted an official safety alert from Helsinki.
Ukrainian drones that prompted Finnish authorities to warn citizens of an unmanned aerial threat in May were laden with explosives and had reportedly been dispatched towards Finland by mistake, according to sources cited by the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.
The latest drone-related incident took place in Finland on May 15. The country’s defence forces, however, stated that they had detected no violations of Finnish airspace.
“Ukraine itself alerted Finland overnight that it had erroneously launched drones towards Finland. The drones were carrying explosives,” the report said.
A previous incident involving Ukrainian drones occurred at the beginning of May. At the time, Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described the episodes as mere accidents resulting from a strange set of circumstances.
On May 19, a Romanian fighter jet operating as part of NATO’s Baltic air-policing mission shot down a drone that had strayed into Estonian territory. Debris from the unmanned aircraft fell near a residential property in Põltsamaa parish. On the same day, an unidentified drone entered Latvian airspace, prompting authorities to issue a warning to local residents about a potential threat.
On May 20, three regions of Latvia declared a possible airborne threat, while parts of Lithuania activated air-raid sirens after a drone was detected near their border.
