Norway reports three airspace violations by Russian jets
Photo: Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (GettyImages)
Russia has violated Norwegian airspace three times this year. The violations lasted from one to four minutes, The Guardian reports.
According to the media outlet, the Norwegian government joined in condemning Russia’s violation of Estonian airspace last week. This was stated in a separate declaration published after today's NATO meeting.
The Norwegian government said that Russia violated Norwegian airspace three times during the spring and summer of this year.
"The incidents in Norway are smaller in scope than the violations against Estonia, Poland, and Romania, in terms of both location and duration. They are nevertheless incidents that we view very seriously," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said.
Støre added that two incidents occurred over the sea northeast of Vardø in April and August, and the third took place over uninhabited territory along the land border in Eastern Finnmark in July.
The border violations, involving SU-24 and SU-33 fighter jets, as well as L410 Turbolet aircraft, lasted from one to four minutes. Norway cannot currently determine whether they were intentional or “due to navigation errors.”
"Regardless of the reason, this is not acceptable and we have made that clear to the Russian authorities," Støre said.
Russia's provocations
On September 19, Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated Estonian airspace near Tallinn, remaining there for about 12 minutes.
In response, Estonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Russia's chargé d’affaires to lodge a protest, while the government turned to NATO allies with a request for consultations under Article 4 - the last time this happened was after Russia’s drone attack on Poland on September 10. Despite the obvious facts, Moscow denied its planes had entered Estonian airspace.
Moreover, on the night of September 22, Denmark suspended operations at Copenhagen International Airport due to the appearance of several drones in its airspace. In Oslo, Norway’s Gardermoen Airport was also completely closed after unknown drones were detected.
Today, NATO stated that the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian aircraft is part of Russia's irresponsible behavior. The Allies stressed that their response will continue to be tough.
