The Russian vessel is suspected of violating Finnish territorial waters

This Friday, July 26, Finland suspects that a Russian research vessel violated its maritime space, the Finnish Ministry of Defense announced. At 12:31 pm, the “Michael Kazansky”, a Russian research vessel from the Baltic Fleet crossed Finland’s territorial waters off the town of Hamina (south), the coast guard said in a press release sent to AFP. It traveled approximately 1.2 nautical miles before exiting these waters at 12:38 p.m. A Finnish patrol boat was not far from the research vessel and repeated attempts to contact it were unsuccessful, the coast guard added.

They will investigate the suspected maritime violation and will communicate once the investigations are completed. The incident comes as relations between the two countries, which share a 1,340-kilometer border, have deteriorated significantly since Finland joined NATO last year, with some border incidents.

On June 10, four Russian military aircraft hovered for approximately two minutes in Finnish airspace from the city of Lovisa (southern), according to a press release from the Finnish ministry, about 2.5 km deep in the interior of the Nordic country. Finland closed its land border with Russia in December 2023 after Helsinki accused Moscow of organizing an influx of undocumented migrants to destabilize the Nordic country. The influx of asylum seekers prompted the Nordic country to adopt a controversial bill in mid-July that would empower border guards to deny entry to asylum seekers arriving at the country’s eastern border without examining their claims.