Finnish jets were unable to respond to Russian airspace violations, Niinistö confirms

President Sauli Niinistö, the commander-in-chief of the Finnish Defence Forces, has in an interview with YLE confirmed that fighter jets of the Finnish Air Force were unable to respond to the violations of Finnish airspace by two Russian aircraft on 20 May.

Savon Sanomat on Saturday wrote that the jets were not on standby due to attempts to reduce the backlog of overtime and were only able to respond to the violations four hours after the detection.

“The resources of the Defence Forces are evidently scarce,” Niinistö commented to YLE.

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