Reports of a violation of Finnish airspace by a Russian military plane were confirmed on Sunday. According to observations on Saturday afternoon, a Russian plane, probably an Antonov 72 military transport aircraft, flew in Finnish airspace for about a minute.
The plane flew about one kilometre into Finnish airspace.
Thomas Sund at the Ministry of Defence says that an investigation into the incident should be complete on Monday or Tuesday.
Sund says that the investigation involves going through radar records which indicate where the plane had flown, and how deep it was in Finnish territory. The records also point to the type of aircraft that was used.
Sund also says that news of the incursion was passed on to other officials immediately. The situation was over in a minute, and no photographs could be taken of the plane.
A similar airspace violation occurred in August last year when a Tupolev 134 military passenger plane strayed into Finnish territory for about two minutes.
In the previous winter there were several violations of Finnish airspace. After repeated denials by Russia, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) took up the issue during a meeting with the Russian Prime Minister in Moscow.
"I will not evaluate the seriousness of the violation at this point", said Minister of Defence Seppo Kääriäinen (Centre) on Saturday. "The situation is nevertheless the same as in the late winter of 2005", he added.
Finnish officials now have a policy of public disclosure of airspace violations.
According to reports from Estonia, Russian planes have also violated Estonian airspace.
The Russian air force has said that it was given new instructions in November to avoid flying in the airspace of other countries without permission.
