Finnish and Swedish Jets Intercept Russian MiG-31s Together for the First Time

Finnish and Swedish fighter jets scrambled together for the first time on Thursday to intercept a formation of Russian military aircraft over the Gulf of Finland, a milestone for the two Nordic countries that joined NATO after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Finnish F/A-18 Hornets and Swedish JAS 39 Gripens on quick reaction alert were sent up on Sept. 24 after Russian aircraft were detected in international airspace, according to the Swedish Armed Forces. The Russian group included a Tu-134 transport plane, MiG-31 interceptors, which are built to fly high and fast to detect and engage long-range threats, and Su-30 multirole fighters. Finland's air force called it "the first joint operational identification mission" between the two air forces. A deeper partnership that began this autumn lets the two countries fly joint identification missions and lets their alert fighters operate from each other's air bases.

"This is what close cooperation looks like in practice," Maj. Gen. Jonas Wikman, commander of the Swedish Air Force, said in a statement. "Built over years on trust and strong personal relationships, we can now operate seamlessly together — as air forces, as nations and as Allies." Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X that "the Baltic Sea has never been as vulnerable as it is now - but it has also never been better protected than it is right now."

The intercept came amid a run of Russian incursions along NATO's eastern flank. Russian drones have entered Polish airspace, a Mi-8 helicopter crossed from Kaliningrad into Poland, drones have crashed in Romania and Moldova, and armed Russian jets entered Estonian airspace before NATO aircraft intercepted them on Sept. 18. On the same day as the Nordic scramble, Denmark's Defence Intelligence Service warned of "a low but growing risk that Russia will launch a limited military attack against one or several NATO countries bordering Russia."

In Estonia, which sits across the Gulf of Finland from Finland, Defense Minister Martin Herem has warned that Russia could be capable of using military force against his country within a year. Prime Minister Kristen Michal has said the government is ready to close border crossings on short notice if threat assessments change.

Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed those warnings aside on Friday at the St. Petersburg International United Cultures Forum. "Many people in Europe say they expect an attack from Russia and therefore claim they must prepare for war with Russia," he said. "I want to emphasize once again: we are not preparing for military action against Europe. We have no such plans, no basis for them, and, most importantly, no real motive to escalate the situation with Europe." He then mocked Herem. "As we jokingly say in Russia: 'The circus has left, but the clowns remain.' It is political clowning," Putin said, according to EurAsia Daily.

Finland became NATO's 31st member in April 2023, roughly doubling the alliance's land border with Russia, and Sweden became the 32nd in March 2024, ending decades of military non-alignment for both. The Baltic Sea region has been on heightened alert since 2022 over damage to undersea pipelines and cables, sabotage and other hybrid threats. NATO says its activity on the eastern flank is purely defensive and that it is "ready, willing and able to defend every Ally."