The Russian aircraft that violated Swedish territory came five kilometres into Swedish airspace.
Swedish defence called the aircraft to warn it and urge it to leave, but received no response.
Two Jas planes, a so-called rote, took off to intercept the Russian aircraft of the SU-24 type, which flew five kilometres into Swedish airspace east of Gotland's southern tip. The violation lasted approximately two minutes.
Air Force Chief Jonas Wikman reacts strongly to the Russian violation and calls it unacceptable.
"Not sufficient respect"
This indicates that they do not have sufficient respect for territorial integrity, and when you end up in such a situation.
Territorial integrity is fundamental to us, and therefore we think it is serious when something like this happens.
Jonas Wikman does not want to speculate why the Russian aircraft violated Swedish airspace, but sees connections to an increased global temperature and increased general activity level, Sweden's NATO membership, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Since the Baltops exercise is also ongoing, with many NATO forces in the Baltic Sea. And there are also Russian forces in the Baltic Sea at present, so everything is connected.
Jonas Wikman explains that the Swedish Air Force had good control and followed the aircraft all the time on radar and with the help of sensors and information from allies.
Two Swedish JAS planes stationed on Gotland had taken off to follow the Russian aircraft even before it reached Swedish airspace.
Reconnaissance plane behind the violation
It was a reconnaissance version of the SU-24 aircraft type that violated Swedish airspace.
That's an important point. Normally, one thinks of a bomber or attack plane, but in this case, it was a reconnaissance version, says Jonas Wikman.
The Air Force Chief has no information on how the aircraft was armed.
I don't have detailed information about that.
The last Russian violation, apart from the one on Friday, occurred in 2022 when two Russian SU-27s and two Russian SU-24s violated Swedish airspace over Gotland.
Russian aircraft have also violated Finnish airspace recently. Finland reported that a plane violated its airspace on Monday, and on Friday, three more Russian planes violated Finnish airspace.
According to a press release, it was about two Russian bomber planes and two fighter jets in total in the two incidents.
On Friday, the planes were 2.5 kilometres into Finnish territory, not as far in as in Sweden. The incident occurred over the Gulf of Finland off the city of Lovisa east of Helsinki.
