Following an attack near St. Petersburg, Finland has restricted air and maritime traffic
Finland has confirmed that temporary restrictions on air and maritime traffic over the Gulf of Finland were imposed due to a Ukrainian attack on targets in the St. Petersburg area. According to Finnish officials, the measures were preventive in nature and related to the security situation.
Hykkänen confirmed that the approximately 4-hour restrictions on traffic in the Gulf of Finland on the morning of July 4 were related to a Ukrainian drone attack on targets on Russian territory. He explained that these were precautionary measures. At the same time, the situation was not considered serious enough to warrant issuing an air raid alert to the population in areas along the coast of the Gulf of Finland.
Ultimately, the Finnish military did not detect any violations of the country’s airspace.
“We were prepared to counter the drones using fighter jets, helicopters, and naval assets—should they have strayed off course. But in the end, they did not,” the minister noted.
Hakkinen noted that such precautionary measures may become more frequent.
“Ukraine will most likely continue these successful strikes against Russia. They see that Russia is suffering significant losses—and thus the pressure on Russia to achieve peace will intensify. So I believe the attacks will continue,” the minister explained.
"Finns must be prepared for the fact that drone incidents near our borders will definitely continue," Antti Hykkänen added.
According to Yle, Defense Minister Antti Hykkänen made this statement.
Finland has temporarily closed part of the Gulf of Finland due to the war between Ukraine and Russia.
As a reminder, Finland will allocate an additional 40 million euros to support Ukraine as part of the international PURL initiative. According to Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, these funds will be directed primarily toward strengthening air defense and protecting Ukrainians from Russian missile attacks.
Finland, together with NATO, is actively building up its own defense capabilities in response to Russia’s expansion of military bases and infrastructure in neighboring regions. This was stated by Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hykkänen.
