The Swedish Armed Forces complained on Saturday that a Russian plane violated its airspace in the Blekinge province on Friday night, as reported in a statement.

“The aircraft was located east of Bornholm and then flew into Swedish territory. For a short period the aircraft violated Swedish airspace and then left the area. Swedish incident preparedness followed the entire process and photographed the incident,” the report indicated.

The aircraft in question was an AN-30 propeller plane, a reconnaissance variant. In a text message to the Swedish daily ‘Aftonbladet,’ the country’s defense minister, Peter Hultqvist, criticized the event.

“Of course, we will act diplomatically against this. The action is unprofessional and, given the general security situation, extremely inappropriate. Swedish sovereignty must always be respected,” he said.

The Armed Forces also reported a brief trespass into Swedish skies by four Russian fighter planes over Baltic Sea waters east of the island of Gotland, around 300 kilometers from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, in March.

This incident involving four Russian fighter jets, two Su-27 fighters and two Su-24 fighters, was documented by Swedish Air Force fighter planes.

“This is an unprofessional and irresponsible action on the part of Russia,” Air Force chief Carl Johan Edstrom said at the time.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland are reportedly considering joining NATO. Moscow has warned that such a move would have repercussions but has not specified what those repercussions would be.

Image Credit: Getty

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