The risk of military drones drifting into Finland as a spillover from the war in Ukraine is increasing, Finland’s top military intelligence chief has warned, raising fresh concerns about airspace security in the Nordic country.
Major General Pekka Turunen, Chief of Finnish Defence Intelligence, disclosed this in an interview with AFP ahead of the release of Finland’s latest military intelligence report, which reviews the country’s security outlook. Finland shares a 1,340 kilometre border with Russia and has remained on heightened alert since the conflict began.
One of the key concerns highlighted in the report is the growing danger posed by long-range drones unintentionally crossing into Finnish territory.
“The risk of a drone drifting into Finnish airspace or onto Finnish territory is growing all the time, the more Ukraine strikes in this area near the Gulf of Finland,” Turunen said.
He explained that Ukraine has been targeting Russian oil ports located close to Finnish borders, while Russia has responded by deploying GPS jamming systems. According to him, drones that rely on satellite navigation could be pushed off course by such electronic interference and end up drifting into neighbouring countries, including Finland.
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“Ukraine has been targeting these oil ports quite close to Finland and now we know how Russia is countering them by using GPS jamming. If a drone was using GPS for navigation to reach its target, it could be diverted somewhere else through this jamming,” Turunen said.
Despite the rising risk, he confirmed that Finland has not recorded any such drone incidents so far.
Finland’s overall security environment has worsened since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, although Turunen noted that the situation has remained largely unchanged compared to last year. He stressed that there has been no direct increase in military threat against Finland.
“The military threat has not increased,” he said.
Following the invasion, Finland abandoned decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, officially becoming a NATO member in April 2023.
Turunen also pointed to wider political developments that could influence Russia’s behaviour. He said recent political turbulence linked to former United States President Donald Trump’s remarks on Greenland may be giving Moscow greater room to act as international attention shifts away from Ukraine.
“At least on a political level, it has probably had an encouraging effect on Russia,” he said, adding that Moscow may see the current political climate as a sign of division within the West, NATO and Europe.
The comments were made before Trump announced that he was scrapping tariffs against Europe and ruling out military action to seize Greenland from Denmark, after earlier threats had unsettled European leaders and strained relations within the NATO alliance.
As the war in Ukraine continues, Finnish authorities say they are closely monitoring developments, warning that modern warfare tactics such as drone strikes and electronic jamming carry unpredictable cross-border risks for neighbouring states.
