In the period between April and August this year, Russian planes on three occasions violated the airspace over Eastern Finnmark, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre says.
”The incidents in Norway were less serious than the violations against Estonia, Poland and Romania, both in terms of location and duration. Nevertheless, we take these incidents very seriously,” the Norwegian PM says in a statement.
According to the Støre, two of the incidents occurred over the sea northeast of Vardø. The third occurred over an uninhabited area along the border in Eastern Finnmark. The violations reportedly lasted between one and four minutes.
”We cannot determine whether this was done deliberately or was due to navigational error. Regardless of the cause, this is unacceptable, and we have made this clear to the Russian authorities,” says Støre.
The first incident took place on April 25 when a Russian SU-24 fighter jet flew into Norwegian airspace over the sea areas northeast of Vardø. The aircraft flew through Norwegian airspace for four minutes, the prime minister’s office reports.
The second incident took place on July 24 when a Russian L410 Turbolet aircraft flew through Norwegian airspace over an uninhabited area along the border in Eastern Finnmark for three minutes. The third incident happened on August 18 when a SU-33 fighter jet flew through Norwegian airspace over the sea areas northeast of Vardø for one minute. Läs artikel